Internal Wars
by Gen the Pyromaniac
Summary: It's on to the next life for the KH group. When a new redhaired student suddenly moves to this highschool, sparks fly between him and Roxas. Will things get better for the pair? Akuroku Shounen ai after a point in the story, yaoi at times
1. On to the next life

**Disclaimer: **I do not own KH, all of the characters are the property of Square Enix. The story is my own, thusly mine XD

**Auther's Notes:** I'm sorry the intro is so short. I promise it get's longer and better from here, but I thought this'd be a nice opening ) Enjoy! Please don't let the length of this first part get to you. The rest all push over 1000 words, with the last 3 pushing past 2000, and last one pushing past 3000 (up to chapter 4) This is only the opening!

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**Faded**

"I'll see you in the next life…" the images of past memories flooded through his mind, stopping at the memory of a redhead. He felt the vision slip away as he tried to hold on to it, as though he'd hurt the redhead if he lost it.

Roxas stood in front of the large flower shaped memory capsule which held the sleeping Sora in it's center. The hologram of DiZ flickered a bit in a nonexistant wind. The hologram didn't say a word as it watched Roxas looked down, a sad look on his facial features.

"You're lucky Sora... looks like my summer vacation is over..."

Memories rushed through him again as he remembered everything briefly in snippets. He remembered sea-salt ice cream, his Twilight Town friends, and even Organization XIII. 'Axel... the next life? When will that be? But.. I'll see you there. Promise,' he thought as everything began to fade slowly. He drifted away as his grip on life ended.


	2. Welcoming

**Disclaimer:** I do not own KH or it's characters. They belong to Square Enix. The story is my own, so thusly is mine.

**Notes:** Uh, longness, but no shounen ai yet. I'm sorry for that guys, just gotta get things out of the way ;) anyway, ratings are awesome if you feel like it. any questions, feel free to ask. Oh, btw, this is my first story, wish me luck!

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A blond haired teen leaned in his chair, quietly chewing his gum, waiting for the bell to ring. Next to him a girl doodled profusely in her sketch book. The boy leaned over a little to try and peek at the drawing. Furrowing his forehead, he studied it. Two figures clad in black coats were standing near each other. One looked like him, he noticed. The other was a redhead, or so the red colored pencial said. The guy in the picture had wild hair, that seemed to defy gravity.

"Namine? What is this?" he asked, making the girl look up.

"I don't really know. I just had an urge to draw it. I don't know who the other guy is... but I know I drew you for some reason." She glanced down at the picutre as the door to the class room opened. A brown haired boy was quickly followed by a silver haired teen who was almost a head taller than the brunette.

"Roxas!" the brunette exclaimed, weaving through the desks to reach the blonde.

"Hey Sora..." replied Roxas, still rather preoccupied with looking down at the drawing. Who was the guy that stood beside him? Why did Namine even draw them like that? He tried to shrugg off the familiar feeling in his gut as Sora waved his hand in front of the blond's face. He looked up, confused. "What?"

"God, Roxas, you're so spacey all of a sudden. I just asked you how your weekend was," answered Sora stifly, giving Roxas a withering look.

"My weekend.. it was.. fine," he said bluntly as he picked up the sketch book since Namine had gotten up to find her pencil sharpener. Roxas absently flipped through the pages when he noticed a picture of him standing in front of a metal flower thing. He was about to ask the girl about it when she grabbed it out of his hands.

"Mr. Tokai is coming..."

The siler haired teen sighed as he left out the back door, waving to them before he disappeared around the corner. Sora continued to gaze at the shut door until the teacher walked in from the front door.

"Alright guys, time to settle down. Back to your seats and get your stuff out."

The black haired man set down his thickly stuffed bag on his desk at the front of the classroom. The students in the class scramled to their seats. After a moment of busy shuffling, everyone was sitting quietly with all their things ready on their desks for the first class of the day. Mr. Tokai took out a dry erase marker and wrote the schedual on the corner of the board in his neat, thick handwriting. He stopped suddenly as a knock echoed through the room. The door slid open with the principle of the school walking in nonchalontly.

"Hey guys," he said cooly, all eyes on him and his broad grin.

"Hello, Mr. Loire" rang through the room with a few 'Hey, Laguna!'. Laguna didn't seemed bothered by it in the least, though Mr. Tokai seemed a bit irritated by the formality. Roxas eyed the ever popular principle who still seemed like he was in his twenties when he was really somewhere in his fourties. Clearly, he had found something to make him constantly look young. Whatever worked, thought Roxas deftly. Laguna cleared his throat a little as Mr. Tokai crossed his arms.

"Happy November first, you guys. You made it through two months of school. Good job." A few people snickered. "Now on to business. You guys are fortunately enough to get another student to fill up an extra desk. He has transferred from Shadow High and moved to the neighborhood this weekend. So, be nice you guys 'cus I certainly don't want to see you in my office any time soon." Laguna rambled on, unaware that a few people in the back of the room were no longer paying any attention to him.

"I saw the new student this morning..." Sora said, turning his head so that Roxas could hear him. The brunette sat right in front of the blond boy.

"And...?" pressed Roxas.

"And I think it's a girl," replied Sora, rubbing the back of his neck a little.

"You.. think? What do you mean 'think'? Either it is or isn't."

"Well, they were wearing a coat and were turned away so I didn't see their hairstyle or their face, but they seemed kinda feminine," finished Sora. Roxas snorted. Sora was a horrible judge of gender unless things were pretty much said right to him or things were pretty much right in his face.

"Please welcome Axel Ochen." Sora snorted softly, oblivious to the expressions on Roxas' and Namine's faces. "What kind of name is Ax-" he paused once he had turned around a little to laugh with Roxas and saw his face. The blond boy's eye seemed to be twitching. "What the hell?" Sora said, one eyebrow raised higher than the other. That certainly wasn't a common expression. Namine silently handed Sora her sketchbook. He scanned the page quickly before returning it. "You probably just saw him somewhere and decided to draw his gravity defying hair-do."

"With me? And in cloaks?" Roxas looked at Sora disdainfully, wondering how he could answer that.

"It's just -" Laguna cleared his throught as Sora tried to answer.

"Thank you. Anyway, Axel what I said earlier was right, correct?" Laguna turned his head to the teen standing near the door. The redhead gave a bored nod, scanning the class. "Well then, take your pick for a seat and I'll be on my way."

Axel moved down the columns of desks, ignoring the open seats closer to the front of the room. Finally choosing a seat, he set his bag, which seemed to be covered in pins and a few thin chains with charms on them, by the legs of the table before sitting down in the seat, reclining a little. It seemed he chose the seat right next to Roxas. The blond boy peered at the redhead out of the corner of his eye. Axel noticed somehow and stuck his tongue out at him. Roxas scuffed slightly as the class finally began.


	3. Cold Eyes

**Disclaimer:** I do not own KH or it's characters. They belong to Square Enix. The story is my own, so thusly is mine.

**Author Notes:** Okay, this part is kinda weird and has no shounen ai in it again. I'm only setting things up. ) it'll get good, I promise! Sorry if half of it sucks a bit, but I finished this after a long day of being a CiT (counselor in training) and am about to fall off my chair. I think it's decent so it shouldn't be that bad. It's kinda... odd, just so you know ;)

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"I don't get it..." Roxas repeated for the fifth time in the past two minutes. Sora rolled his eyes, a jumbo breaded shrimp between his teeth. Namine picked at her salad absently, staring at in hopes of getting an answer to her many questions.

"I probably just saw his hair do somewhere and thought I'd draw it. No big deal, Roxas," The blond boy didn't look at all convinced though. He had no choice but to drop it since everyone seemed to buy that story, or they just didn't really care. Roxas glanced over to where Axel was eating his lunch alone, his back to the group, and the rest of the class for that matter. "Maybe we should ju invite him ov-" Namine paused suddenly, her head turned to the door. Another redhead, a girl this time, walked in with the silver haired boy following quickly behind.

"Sora!" the girl exclaimed, instantly running at the brunette. Sora smiled as the girl wrapped her arms around the boy's narrow shoulders.

"Hey Kairi," he said, trying to free himself from the girl's grip. Kairi finally let go, only to get a chair for herself.

"We know you love Sora oh so much, Kairi, but you don't need to let the rest of the class know." The silver haired boy pulled up a chair, reclining in it. Kairi flushed lightly as she reached over to flick the boy on the forehead. He blocked it though and only got his hand flicked. "That was very uncalled for," he said grimly in response to her actions.

"You didn't have to say anything. What _you_ said was highly uncalled for, Riku!" The girl glared at Riku, who simply waved off what she had said. Kairi leaned back in her chair and pouted slightly. "You're so mean..." Riku only smirked in reply.

"We really should invite that guy over," Namine finally got out.

"Roxas, you go do it," Sora ordered suddenly.

"What? Me? Why me?" Roxas looked confused, then kind of angry. If Sora wanted to do something, he should do it, instead of being the lazy ass he was. Feeling feet on his back, the blond boy fell to the floor, his spot on the chair replaced by the brunette's black shoes. "You could have just said something instead of decorating my shirt with your shoes." Roxas rose from the floor, brushing off the footprint that had been placed on the back of his shirt.

Roxas glanced hopefully at Namine, who sometimes helped out in major moments. 'Sometimes' was the main word here. Yet the girl provided no such help for she was staring at her sketchbook with hollow eyes. She was lost in her train of thought and didn't manage to notice anything around her. The blond boy sighed as he walked over to Axel, standing a few feet away. He paused, looking for sympathy from his friends. Sora waved at him and Kairi gave him an encouraging nod. Riku wasn't even looking in his direction; he seemed to be staring at Sora's back. Sighing again, Roxas turned to find Axel already facing him.

"What?" Axel's face was expressionless, though his eyes seemed cold.

"Um..." Roxas looked a bit unnerved at the redhead's expression, or the lack of. "They... we... were wondering if, um, you'd come sit with us. You look kinda... lonely." The boy fiddled with his hands subconciously. Axel looked back at Roxas, his gaze intensifying. Roxas almost flinched away. Sheer stubbornness let him look right back, even if he was wilting a bit at the gaze.

"I'm perfectly fine on my own. I don't need your pity, or anyone elses. So please, go away," Axel said bluntly, frowning. A look of disgust crossed Roxas' face. Axel seemed mildly interested in that look, his abnormally small eyebrows ring a little.

"Geez, we were only trying to be nice to you! And what do you say? 'Oh go away'. What the hell is wrong with you?" The blond boy turned on his heel and stormed to his friends. Sora instantly put down his feet, slightly afraid of his closest friend. Roxas slammed himself down in his chair, pulling out his sandwich in a fury. The brunette boy scooted his chair over a little to emphasize his worry. Roxas was definately pissed off.

"What was that about?" Kairi asked innocently, looking intently at the back of the blond's head. Riku's eyebrow rose a bit as he looked at Axel; that redhead seemed to be frowning deeply about something. Namine looked up at Roxas, studying him with her bright blue eyes, questions clearly wanting to get out of her head. Roxas glared at Sora since it was his fault that the blond had to go to Axel in the first place. If he hadn't kicked him off his chair, Roxas wouldn't have been insulted! No, it was Namine's fault for suggesting it. No... it wasn't her fault. It was a well intended idea, but poorly executed by Roxas. He didn't stop to ponder this though. He never did in a rage, not until it subsided.

"God, I asked that guy if'd he'd like to sit with us and he said he didn't need our pity. What the hell is up with that?!" Roxas roared to the group. Kairi peeked at Axel as the male redhead turned his back on the group again, returning to his lunch. "Man.. something's wrong with that guy."

"Aren't you being a little rash in your judgements, Roxy?" Riku said seriously, resting his head in one hand. Roxas glared at the silver haired teen though Riku didn't give a reaction.

"I'm not being rash. He just isn't making a good impression! Would you honostly say that when someone was trying to be nice? Even you, Riku, wouldn't be so cold and heartless about it. And don't call me Roxy!" Roxas stuffed his mouth with his sandwich, ready to send up sparks. An angry aura seemed to surround the boy, making the people at the table feel unnerved a little. Roxas was definately pissed about Axel right now. Kairi sighed as she engaged Sora in a conversation, leaving the blond boy to stew in his angst. Namine returned to her sketchbook, a new page open and pencils ready.

"I wonder why he doesn't want to come over here..." Kairi muttered, so that only Sora could hear. The boy shrugged.

"He's probably anti-social. He'll probably go join the punks or the emotionally charged guys." Riku rolled his eyes at that. Sora always said the worst possible things. He sometimes made no sense, while other times he could be down right philisophical. Sometimes, he was just hyper.

"Sora, why do you honostly think every person is going to join the punks or the emos? He's not wearing tight pants for one thing, and he doesn't look depressed for another." As always, Riku made more sense than Sora.

Kairi cocked her head at Riku. "Then where is he going to go?"

Riku only shrugged. "We'll see."


	4. Shallow isn't what I'm looking for

**Disclaimer:** KH and all it's characters are owned by Square Enix. All Final Fantasy game characters are also owned by Square Enix. The story is mine, so please do not take anything without my permission.

**Pairings:** Akuroku and some RikuSora

**Author Notes:** As I said in a reply to a review, I'd make this chapter and the ones following it as long as I could. And success! I almost doubled it! D hope you guys like this, since there isn't any shounen ai in it either. I like it though since I'm sport challenged and am a horrible softball player / Hope it makes enough sense. Sorry if some seams kinda weird, but I'm tired again from work, but thankfully, today was my last day so the next chapters will have more awake sounding ... everything XD Anyway, enough of my rambling, enjoy.

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The sun shone fiercely outside, contridicting the cold breeze that blew around the school's kickball fields. Girls and guys in gray shirts or sweatshirts with black shorts or pants were crowding the two batting cages. About half the grade was out playing softball, each gender to it's own field. The teams had been divided by the class's male teacher, Leon, who had somehow managed to split up the dream team; Roxas and Sora. Of course, he had planned it, as clever in his quiet way as always. Leon had always known that the two strove to beat each other when forced to go against another, but always went crazy together, causing their team to get so highly spirited that it was a no brainer who would win. Somehow, Axel managed to get on Roxas' team since Leon had yet to figure out how well the redhead played. Roxas sat on the metal bench, his team batting at the moment. A few spaces ahead of him was that redhead, leaning back on the fence with his arms crossed. It was a thursday, which meant that Axel had been at the highschool for four days officially. What else was official was how much annoyance he caused Roxas. It seemed that all the redhead did was do things that bugged the blond, even if it wasn't intentional. That only irked the boy more. And now Leon had done the unimaginable; he had placed them on the same team. Either he wanted to make Roxas annoyed, or he was just as he always was. 

Roxas gazed at the game that was playing beyond the second fence that protected the sitting players. Sora was on third, ready to catch a flyball. Hayner, another boy in the grade but in a different class, was pitching the ball to the batter, Tidus. Tidus was the grade's all star jock, ready to play any game thrown at him, and always managing to get to the top or being a highly coveted player despite any problems with the games themselves. Tidus knew this quite well, and flaunted his abilities whenever he could, always managing to stay close to the border of bragging but never crossing the line. Still, he had made a few guys angry, causing his girlfriend to constantly apologize for him. Everyone wondered why Yuna stuck with the guy, even though it was clear he has some major pride issues. She never seemed to mind the way he acted, maybe it was because of the way her mind worked. She always thought that people had to be forgiven unless the crime was too great to forgive. Some people argued with her philosophies, Roxas being one of them. He was a strong believer of first impressions and impressing people. That was probably why the two couldn't really be friends. Now Sora, he could befriend anyone he wanted, if he would only try. He had his ring of true friends, and that was all he wanted.

Hayner glanced at Tidus, running through the types of throws he could use. Nodding to himself, he angled himself a little bit before throwing the ball (it was more like chucking the ball) at Tidus. The jock smirked as his bat met ball, making the orb shoot back into the field, arching. Tidus rushed away from the base, running towards first. Sora, in the meantime, raced towards the falling ball. Pence, another boy and a close friend of Hayner's, rushed at it too. Sora didn't see Pence coming at him, and managed to avoid the larger teen by tripping over his feet and falling to his knees. Sora's team screamed at the boy, "Get up!" The brunette looked up to see the ball's shadow only a few feet ahead of him. He crawled rapidly to the shadow, arm outstretched. Tidus was approaching second base as the ball fell into Sora's hand. The team roared in joy at the surprise success of one of the clumsiest guys in the school. Tidus stood dumbfound between third and second, staring at Sora with both fists clenched. Leon, watching the game, blew his whistle and ordered Tidus off the diamond. Tidus' team looked equally dumbfound. That was majorly unexpected. Who was going to win now that the star had been out on the first shot? Sora looked so proud of himself as he returned to his station. The rest of his team moved to their positions, looks of renewed intensity on their faces. They felt good enougth to win now. Roxas beamed at Sora, glad he managed to surprise everyone.

Roxas looked at the next batter, making something in his stomach leap. Was that out of anger or something else? Couldn't be anything other than anger for the batter was none other than Axel, a bored look on his face. Leon looked keenly at the new student, his clipboard ready. Hayner looked to his team members for help with the pitch. They all shrugged. This was the first softball game they had played in gym with Axel, so they had no idea what to do. Hayner sighed as he faced the batter, ready to hit his fastball. As he let go of the ball, he let out a soft 'heh', sure that Axel wouldn't hit it. He was dead wrong. Axel hit it and he hit it hard, making it sail towards the left field at a waist height. Roxas oogled Axel, shocked, or was it surprised, that a guy that seemed so... weak could seem so powerful. Was that allowed? Sora scrambled after the ball along with Pence, but Axel had long since passed second and was approaching third. As he hit the base, Sora only managed to get the ball. By the time the ball was returned to Hayner, Axel was already sitting down with another guy ready to pitch.

Half the team sitting looked at Tidus, who looked positively enraged. Axel had showed him up! No one did that! Seifer, a rather vicious guy who was a bully half the time, went to comfort Tidus, ready to plot something nasty for Axel. Roxas noticed it all, actually worried what would happen. He wasn't worried about Axel; he was worried about Tidus and his friends, for they could do anything but how would that affect them? Roxas convinced himself he wasn't worried about Axel, though he hadn't meant to show up the most tempermental guy in school (Tidus is king of Titles, it seems). What would happen?

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Roxas slipped off his shirt, folding the garment neatly and placing it on the bench. The teen's belly wasn't flabby, though it wasn't muscled and toned. He was just normal, a guy that didn't go all out with sports and lifting weights, but still fit enough that he couldn't even be thought as unfit. Wiping off his sweaty brow and underarms, Roxas dumped the sodden towel in the basket near the wall. The teen removed his gym shorts, standing before his open locker with only his boxers on. He rumaged in his locker, pulling out his school uniform which included a white shirt with a red optional jacket and optional black tie and each item had the school's emblem sewed on to the custom made clothes. The pants didn't come with the school's upper body wear, so they had to be provided by the students. Boys could wear only black pants while girls were allowed to wear skirts of appropriate lengths or pants if a proper reason was provided.

As Roxas donned his clothing, he placed the gym clothes in his small locker. Shutting the metal doors, he locked it and spun the combination wheel a bit. Picking up his bag, which was lying on the bench, he went over to the mirror that ran along the wall. His hair hadn't changed a bit during the class, amazingly enough, though his face looked a bit brighter from running around. As always, his blue eyes were gazing back at him. Suddenly, eyes shifting over, Roxas saw Axel changing out of his gym uniform. He had been the last one in since he had discussed something with Leon, probably about joining the team or something. In comparison to Roxas, Axel was muscled and toned, despite his thin appearance. He had a sixpack, which meant Axel was either an active jock or just a guy that lifted weights to be in shape. Whatever he did, he looked pretty good.

Roxas looked back at himself, sickened that he thought Axel looked good. He wasn't supposed to think anything nice about the cold bastard. Besides, Roxas was damn straight, as straight as he could possibly get. He liked girls, no discussion needed. He may act kind of wierd at times and get called gay, but he was straight. He always thought he was. Swearing mentally at himself, Roxas pushed open the door to the bathroom, wanting to wash his face and use one of the handy dandy stalls that were placed there for the convenience of the user. As always, he was being overly sarcastic with himself.

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Exiting the bathroom a few minutes afterwards [[don't ask why he took so long, I don't want to say anything since I have NO idea what guys do in the bathroom /, he noticed that Axel was already gone and his locker shut. Shouldering his bag, Roxas left the locker room and entered the hall. He walked down the hall lightly, not at all eager to get to his next class, history with Ms. Trepe. He wasn't looking forward to seeing the grade to the latest test that he was sure he had failed miserably. Turning a corner, Roxas saw Axel facing a girl that had her back to the wall, making Axel have his back to Roxas. The blond boy moved back to study the scene from around the corner. The girl was black haired and rather pretty, a girl of certain attention in the school. Axel would probably not be able to resist.

"Yeah?" Axel said, still as aloof as he always was. He wasn't looking interested at the moment; in fact, he looked rather out of it, clearly not wanting to talk to the girl at that moment. He looked as though he wanted to be anywhere but here.

"I just.. I just wanted to say.. I um..." The girl seemed nervious. So it was one of those conversations where the girl said she liked the boy and asked him out or something. Roxas hadn't had many of those, since it was clearly he hadn't really shown much interest in the girls that were interested in him, which was a pretty low count.

"What? Just spit it out already." So cold. Roxas wanted to throw something at the redhead's, well, head. He was being downright heartless now. The girl was about to pour her soul into his hands and he was being mean and cold about it. He could at least have tried to be nice!

"I um. I like you!" she finally said, blushing furiously. Funny, Roxas didn't feel angry that Axel was getting attention from one of the cutier girls in their year. He wasn't at all, which was odd for him. He wanted that attention, but it was like anger at the girl for not giving any to him. Wow, that was wierd. In the mean time, Axel simply sighed, hands in his pant pockets.

"If that's it, I'd like to go." Oh there was the feeling to throw something at him.

"Um.. no it's not... would you like to go somewhere with me this weekend or something?" Axel's eyes hardened as he looked at the dark haired girl. Roxas could almost feel the aggitation radiating from Axel. Something snapped, clearly.

"So, you want me, someone you barely know, no someone you DON'T know at all, to go out with you? And what happens if I turn out to be the worst guy ever? What if I do something wrong? You don't know me at all and yet you assume I'm a wonderful person just because I'm visually pleasing to the eye." He snapped at the girl, making her cringe, tears welling up in her eyes. She tried to stop his rampage, but she only managed to get out 'um' and 'no...' a few times before failing completely. "All you people are the same, only wanting somone because they look nice. Shallow! I don't want a shallow person. Have you even tried to get to know me? No! Hell, I haven't even SEEN you anywhere. So what the hell were you thinking?" The girl standing in front of the yelling teen burst into tears as she ran down the hall, getting attention from people in the halls. Axel ran a hand through the hair that defied gravity on his head, one hand planted firmly on his hip. He turned to face the corner where Roxas was standing, listening in and watching. "Enjoying the show?"

Roxas scowled as he stepped out from around the corner. He crossed his arms, feeling the full force of Axel's angry gaze. Sapphire eyes steadily met the emerald eyes. He wasn't backing down now, even if it meant a fight. "You weren't exactly nice to that girl." Axel looked away suddenly, looking anywhere that wasn't filled with Roxas.

"Well, you weren't exactly nice either. You shouldn't have been listening to private conversations." The redhead had him there, but now he only made Roxas angry.

"You were downright nasty to that girl! What's wrong with you?" Roxas roared back, furious. "She spilled her heart to you and you practically destroyed her with a few sentances."

Axel glared at Roxas, his own fury matching the blond's. "Why the hell do you care? I don't want shallow girls chasing after me. I don't want that!" With that, Axel stormed down the hall, eager to get away from the conversation. Roxas just stood there, his blue eyes filled with intensity. So Axel wasn't looking for slutty girls. That was good, but it wasn't good enough to clean the slate between him and Roxas. The blond waited a few minutes before heading down the same hallway, not wanting to run into Axel again. After turning a few times, he reached the class, Quistis Trepe standing at the door, ushering in the last few stragglers. "You've made it just in time, Roxas. A few minutes later and I'd have been forced to send you down to Mr. Loire's office." Roxas nodded silently as he moved past the tall blond woman with glasses. Finding a seat in the back of the class, he settled in, his mind still reeling.


	5. Revenge of the Jocks

**Disclaimer:** KH and Final Fantasy characters belong to Square Enix. Story is mine.

**Author Notes:** Yay! Long chapter D yay! violence! D Anyway, a few notes about last names. Reigen means heartless and Kasai means fire. fitting names, no? Reviews are loved, and cookies to you ) Um.. what else? Oh yeah, some parts are kind of odd. That's because I was doing this on and off, doing random things so yeah. Any questions are welcome. Anyway, isn't Axel just being cocky? Enjoy!

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Roxas peddled his bike faster, glad that the sky had finally filled up with clouds. In the front basket of the bike were a few bags of groceries that his mother had asked him to get after school. Most of the things in the plastic bags were fresh foods like cucumbers and carrots. One of the bags held a plastic container with milk and a box of tea. As always, the teen's mother had a knack for using about twenty bags of tea every week. Appearently they were having over a family from the neighborhood or something like that and Mrs. Reigen had to show off her rather abysmal cooking skills. It was always up to Roxas' father to save the meal with HIS cooking. It was pretty funny to watch his mother try to make a cake with half the ingrediants missing. Of course the funny ended once she managed to set the food on fire. By that time, Roxas' father stepped in to fix everything; he was the cook in the family. He had even begun to teach Roxas his cooking skills. Roxas took to it like a fish took to water. 

A grumble rattled Roxas' stomach, reminding him that he hadn't had that much for lunch today. Moaning slightly as another pang hit him roughly, Roxas stopped his bike. He gripped his stomach as he winced. Well that really was beginning to get annoying and dinner wasn't going to happen for a few hours at most. He was going to die on his bike and crash into the street. Okay, maybe not die, but he wasn't going to be a happy camper. The blond teen took off his backpack. He had gone to the store right after school so that his mother wouldn't pester him to go and do it when he got home. He felt around one of the smaller pockets, looking for that granola bar he had bought for lunch but hadn't eaten. He pulled it out of the pocket, pulling off the random pieces of yarn that had gotten stuck on the bar for some reason. he pulled off the wrapper and stuck the bar between his teeth as he remounted his bike and began to peddle again. Roxas steered with one hand while the other hand gripped the bar.

Turning around the corner, Roxas stopped suddenly. One foot on a peddle and one foot on the ground, the teen saw Axel with his back up against a wall in the alley behind the houses, where the garages stood. He was against one of the large walls that surrounded the complex with Tidus, Seifer, Raijin, and Zidane surrounding him. Axel didn't look worried even though Tidus was pretty much ready to kill him. Seifer stood with Raijin right by his side, smirking. Raijin smiled in anticipation, ready to see what would happen. Raijin was a close friend of Seifer and together with Fujin, they made up one of the most feared 'gangs'. They considered themselves a disciplinary commitee, but they merely follow Seifer since they had always been friends. Fujin was probably the smartest of the three, though she didn't talk that often. Raijin was mainly muscle and happened to be Fujin's cousin. But Seifer was always the ringleader. He had always been the ringleader. It was just the way he was. Zidane was leaning against the wall, simply watching. Now Zidane wasn't one for bullying, but he was close friends with Tidus, so that was probably why he was with them.

'The dastardly trio,' thought Roxas as he saw the 'Disiplinary Commitee'. 'And King Jock and the King's jester,' he added, for he wasn't that happy with the way the five of them treated other people. Zidane was alright, but he never disagreed with the things Tidus did. That gave him the same rank as Tidus in Roxas' book. They hadn't changed much since entering middle school and were the same since then. They had all been good friends in elementary school, but middle school was always the years of 'make it or break it' friendships. Roxas hadn't made their cut, or was it the other way around? Roxas has been best friends with Sora since elementary school and their friendship hadn't even needed to 'make it' since it wasn't going to change. They were too close for that to ever happen. They both may act like retards around each other when with other people, but they were the best of friends. They knew each other inside out.

"You shouldn't have showed me up. No one shows me up." Tidus looked fiercely at the redhead, annoyed that the said redhead didn't seem to give a damn. "I know you're new, so that's why I'm not going to have Raijin destroy you. This is just a friendly warning." Raijin nodded in agreement with Fujin saying, "Warning." She had a way of sounding different since half the time she only used one word or phrase. She was just interesting that way. It didn't help that she had an interesting appearence with silver hair that covered half of her face. She was pretty interesting to a bunch of guys, too. Yet, Fujin never showed interest. Roxas thought she was too dedicated to Seifer and Raijin to really want to be interested. Over all, she was an enigma where Seifer and Raijin were open books.

Axel cocked his head, a smirk on his face. Pulling his lips into an evil grin, he said, "Well, it seems that someone did show you up. I did, so what's the big deal? You might as well tell yourself I got lucky, but you're smarter than that, aren't you?" Tidus flushed in rage. Axel was telling him off! He was insulting the most tempermental guy is school who happened to be backed by the school's top bullies? Was something wrong with him? Honestly, he was going to be KILLED. "And since when did warnings have to be backed with braun. I'd have gone with brain. But then again, I don't see any brain here. Maybe the girl has it since she has had the sense not to enter the conversation." At this Seifer swore loudly as Raijin's face was dumbstruck. He tried to understand what was said as Fujin said, "Stupidity." Clearly that was directed to both Raijin and Axel. Raijin finally understood that he had been insulted. He grabbed Axel's collar and pulled him up. Axel was almost as tall as Raijin, but the thug was still tall enough to be intimidating. Axel only smirked in Raijin's face. "Oh so this isn't a warning anymore is it?"

Seifer growled in anger as Tidus whispered something to him. Seifer shook his head as a look of fury crossed Tidus' face. Seifer adjusted the hat he wore constantly and pushed Tidus away. "I'll take care of this, Ti. Get 'otta here before someone sees the all-star harrasing the new kid. Take Zidane with you." Tidus swore loudly at Seifer, making the teen push Tidus again. Zidane finally interferred, pulling the jock away. Tidus threw a dirty look at Axel, who continued to smirk. "That's a good boy, Ti," Seifer said as Tidus turned the corner and almost walked into Roxas.

"What are you doing here, Reigen?" Tidus said rudely, Zidane rolling his eyes.

"Last time I checked, I had the freedom to walk down my street in peace," Roxas replied, ready to harrasse Tidus. Zidane pulled at Tidus' arm and forced the guy to continue down the road. Tidus raised his arm and gave Roxas the finger. The blond teen rolled his eyes as he returned his attention on the scene around Axel.

Raijin still had Axel gripped by the collar with Fujin standing to the side with her arms crossed. Seifer looked eyes with Axel. The redhead snorted, "Well, watcha gonna do now? Beat the shit out of me? Real original. Next thing you're gonna say is that you're gonna send the rest of your 'gang' to do me in? Or is that what a mafia does?" Seifer clenched his fist, clearly angry. "Oh so YOU'RE going to hit me. That's better than that jock. He was gonna use you guys to do his dirty work. The coward. I bet he wa-" Axel was caught off as Seifer's fist connected with his face. No cries of pain escaped him as a trickle of blood ran down his chin from a cut on his lip. He ran his tongue over it, infuriating Seifer even more. The bully raised his fist again as Fujin turned to look down the alley. The fist connected again, another trickle of blood on Axel's chin, from the other side though. "Roxas," Fujin said simply. Seifer turned, looking at Roxas who continued to watch. Raijin dropped Axel, who fell to his knees, hand wiping away the blood.

"What're you doin' here, Roxas? Shouldn't you be home or somethin'?" Seifer walked away from Axel, though Raijin kept a watch on him. Fujin followed Seifer. "Reason?"

"Just passing through, Seifer. Anyway, I saw a patrol car a few minutes ago. I'd scram if I were you," The blond teen lied, his hands tightening on the handlebars. "That car could be coming down this way soon." He didn't understand why he was helping Axel. He was supposed to hate him right now. It was kind of hard, seeing as he had gotten punched under King Jock's orders.

"Heh, watching out for me, aren't yah? Well, that's nice to know. Guess you're not such a tightwad, Roxas. Raijin, Fujin, let's go. Leave the dike. I think I got the message past his thick head." Raijin smirked as he followed Fujin's actions and trailed after Seifer. After the trio turned the corner, Roxas dismounted his bike and leaned it against the wall.

"God, what the hell did you think you were doing?" Roxas questioned. Axel had been stupid, no doubt about it. "You don't annoy a dog and expect it to not bite you." The blond stretched out his arm to Axel, offering to help him up.

"I can take care of myself." Axel ignored the helpful hand and pushed himself up. He ran his hand across his mouth, wiping away the remaining blood. He turned his emerald eyes on Roxas. The blond suddenly noticed the teardrops on the redhead's face. "I don't need people to take pity on me."

Something snapped in Roxas. "I wasn't taking pity on you! I was trying to help you! Why are you so cold to the people that are trying to help?!"

"Is that what you're trying to do?" Axel said quietly. "Some would call it interfering. Stop it. I don't want you to help me." The way he had said 'you' pissed Roxas off so much. Why couldn't Axel just get over himself?

"Why can't you even say thank you?" Roxas replied.

"Because I can't grant you that. Stop helping me," Axel said bluntly. Roxas' hands curled into fists, his blue eyes filled with rage.

"You're so fucked up! Some people would willingly call you a bastard!"

"Are you one of them? Don't you see? I don't care." That's it, Roxas totally snapped at that. He rammed his fist right into Axel's face. The redhead's hand rose up to the area where the fist connected. His eye closed at the pain. The hits Seifer gave weren't as bad as this one. Somewhere inside Axel felt something with Roxas' punch, as though it shouldn't happen. It was his feeling, but it wasn't HIS. He didn't know how to describe it. Before he could respond to Roxas, the blond had already mounted his bike and rode around the corner. Axel stood there, wondering what was happening.

By the time Roxas dumped his bike in the garage, gave his father the groceries, and sat down in front of the television, he was regretting hitting Axel. Maybe he had deserved, who knew? It had happened. Who knew how Axel would respond to that. Roxas looked out the window as a commercial came on for some new kids soap. Speaking of Axel, he was walking right down the street. Roxas got up and followed Axel's movements. The redhead suddenly turned at a drive and walked up it to the house. He took something out of his pocket and in a moment the door to the house opened. So Axel lived on his street. But there was a question that Roxas had. How did Roxas miss the moving vans? Then he rememebered; he hadn't even looked out the window when his mother said that someone was moving into the across the street and down a little. Wasn't that who was coming over for dinner?

Oh shit. Axel was coming over for dinner.

* * *

Roxas sat in a chair in front of his computer, gazing at the screen. His messenger list was devoid of people. Everyone was busy doing things. Sora was online, but he had an away message; "Over at Riku's. bbl." Roxas stared at the message. The two of them had a project, so that was why Sora was at Riku's house. But Roxas needed to talk to him. Damn school, with all it's projects. Damn it all! 

"Roxas. Dinner. Our guests are here."

Roxas sighed as he put up an away message and turned the screen off. Taking the steps two at a time, he had felt a surge of relief to see that Axel hadn't come. It was only his parents. Axel's mother was a rather pretty woman with soft, long red hair that fell past her shoulders. She had gray eyes that radiated warmth. Axel's father was well built and tall. He had short black hair that hung loosely on his head and some fell over his sharp green eyes. Clearly, Axel was a mix of the two. The woman smiled as Roxas came down the stairs while the man gave a small wave.

"Roxas, this is Mr. and Mrs. Kasai. You probably know their son, Axel. I heard he goes to school with you," said Roxas' mother. She was a short woman with shoulder length brown hair and brown eyes. Right beside her stood his father. Roxas took after his father, who had equally spikey blond hair and blue eyes. Mrs. Reigen ushered in the two guests into the dining room as Axel's mother explained his absence.

"He wasn't feeling well when he came home so I thought he'd better stay home and rest. Probably just tired from school." Roxas looked down, slightly ashamed. At least he wouldn't have to face Axel till later. The teen took his seat next to his father's seat and across from Axel's mother. Roxas' father came in carrying the main course; a stir fry style stew. It seemed that this time, Mrs. Reigen hadn't even tried to attempt dinner. All she had done was clean and gotten everything ready. Roxas said thanks as he was served stew. He may not like Axel much, but he knew he'd like his parents. How did two such wonderful people produce such a bad egg?

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* * *

Once dinner was over and the guests had left and everything cleaned up, Roxas went back into his sanctuary, his room. He turned on his computer screen and was rewarded with Sora being online. Instantly turning off his away message, he sent Sora a message. 

rockoutloud32: Sora!  
absolutelywrong90: Hey Roxy  
rockoutloud32: stop it.  
absolutelywrong90: heh, sorreh  
rockoutloud32: Heard you had a project with Riku. What'd you do at his house for four hours?  
absolutelywrong90: Project.. stuffs  
rockoutloud32: and...?  
absolutelywrong90: after we just played video games. so?  
rockoutloud32: nothing nothing.  
absolutelywrong90: Something happened. I can tell you're stalling. Spill it Roxy.  
rockoutloud32: stop it!!  
rockoutloud32: but... fine. I saw Axel getting harrassed by Tidus and the disiplinary committee.  
absolutelywrong90: oh? He got beaten up right?  
rockoutloud32: only got hit twice. I lied to Seifer and said a patrol car was coming.  
absolutelywrong90: why? I thought you hated the guy?  
rockoutloud32: dunno...  
rockoutloud32: but then the guy said he didn't need help and I got pissed off and...  
absolutelywrong90: ...and... what?  
rockoutloud32: I punched him.

Roxas stopped, staring at the screen. He heard his mom coming upstairs to tell him to go shower and to go to sleep. He could almost hear her at the door, ready to turn to doorknob.

absolutelywrong90: ah. well. at least now he knows you hate him.  
rockoutloud32: yeah.. listen, I g2g right now. Mom's coming. I'll see you tomorrow.  
absolutelywrong90: okay bye. and don't worry about Axel. If he bugs you, just punch him again. lol  
rockoutloud32: lol... w/e. night.  
absolutelywrong90: night.  
rockoutloud32 has signed off.

Roxas turned off his messanger and turned off his computer's screen. Mrs. Reigen walked in and told the teen to go off to bed. Roxas nodded, as his mother closed the door. Taking off his shirt, the teen threw it into the dirty clothes hamper in his bathroom. He looked in the mirror as he shut the door. Suddenly he remembered the whole deal with the locker room as he looked at his torso. 'Stop it,' he mentally ordered himself as he turned on the water. Steam rose from the tub as hot water fell from the showerhead. Maybe sleep would clear away all these thoughts, after a nice long, hot shower. Yeah, a cleansing shower followed by sleep was certain to do the trick.


	6. Memory

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the characters. They are property of Square Enix.

**Author Notes: **This chapter is shorter than the last one mainly because I didn't find it that interesting and decided to spare you guys the trouble of reading a boring chapter. It's kind of important to the plot, so it had to be here. Sorry about that :P It's in the point of view of Axel, just so you know. The next chapter probably is going to be similar to this one, but after that I know for certain the 7th chapter is going to be longer and much, much more juicy and lovable. Promise. Enjoy as best as you can!

* * *

A few weeks after being punched by Roxas, Axel was sitting in the library, looking up things for his Art History class, which happened to be taught by the school's most nosy teacher; Aeris. The woman had a way of being philosophical when no one wanted her to butt into their business. Whenever she heard something amiss among her class, she'd usually attempt to fix it. It always seemed to work out too. It was as though she were blessed with a great skill. She also had the best advice at times, which was why so many people tended to stray to her for help with life problems, and not just about the history of art. There hadn't been a case that stumped her yet though she had certainly had challenges. She loved those challenges the most since they gave her a chance to really be helpful. Because of how helpful she really was, everyone liked her, though she could get ridiculously nosy. Why Axel was thinking about her abilities, he didn't know. Maybe she could solve his problems... whatever they were.

So Axel sat, in a far corner of the library looking up Da Vinci and all the things he had done in his long lifetime. He took notes in the spiral next to the book, trying to include a quick sketch of whatever he was looking at but failing miserably. Axel loved the class, but he hated actually making art. Maybe it was because he sucked horribly at it? That was probably the case since he couldn't draw to save his life. Axel sighed as he gave up trying to sketch out one of Da Vinci's sketches and resolved to just get a photocopy of it. The redhead leaned back on his chair, putting his hands behind his head and on his hair, which still seemed to defy gravity. Only Axel knew the secret of his hair; hair gel. A butt load of hair gel to maintain all the spikes on his head. Other than that, all he had to do was wash it. It was almost like what a girl would do to take care of her hair, though he'd never admit it to anyone. Some things were best left private.

Axel was hiding things, as all teens tend to do. Yet, he was hiding them in a way he regretted. He hated being cold and isolated, but it was to protect himself and everyone else around him. It was better to let people hate him for being cold than hating him for what was hidden inside. Axel knew that Roxas hated him. It was clear. Axel still had an almost faded bruise from Roxas' fist. That punch, though, had felt so wrong. He knew it shouldn't have had to happen, but he brought it upon himself. He didn't know why he cared so much about one guy and how much he hated him. It was just a feeling that was there. Axel couldn't even say that it was his own feeling. It felt foreign, but familiar, like a forgotten relative. Axel wanted it to go away. It was a sad, hurt feeling and he hated it. He didn't want to get attached at all to anyone anymore. Why else would he suddenly change the way he acted once he moved from his old town? No one was supposed to know him. His parents were the only exception he was willing to grant, though.

The library was quiet; barely anyone was there since it was still lunch time. Barely anyone went to the library at lunch, which was probably the reason for Axel being there; he hated sitting alone in that classroom and just eating. At least he could get some work done here. Suddenly the door opened and footsteps could be heard stepping on the carpeted ground. Axel didn't look up from his notes, flipping the pages absently trying to find better information for his latest bit of homework. Ironically enough, Roxas was in his class. "Gahh.. Stop thinking about the guy..." Axel scolded, not noticing a certain silver haired teen stepping up to his desk.

"Axel." The redhead looked up at his name, staring right at Riku's turquoise eyes. Riku looked intensely down on Axel, clearly here for a reason.

"What?" Axel replied dully. He didn't feel like being bothered right now.

"I have a question for you," replied the other teen. Riku pulled out the chair and sat down, apparently not going anywhere anytime soon. Axel sighed as he shut both his book and his spiral. This probably wouldn't end well. "Why do you try to annoy Roxas so badly?" The redhead rested his head on his hand, elbow on the table to support him. He didn't like where this was going. Wait... why did Riku even know about that? Of course, Roxas is friends with the guy. He probably told him everything. Not a big surprise, really.

"I... don't try. I just do. I don't care. Hell, I don't really feel like talking to you about this." Axel picked up his books and stood up. As he was walking past Riku, the redhead felt an iron grip on his wrist. Turning about suddenly, he came face to face with Riku, who had stood up in pursuit of the fleeing Axel. "What the hell do you want from me?" he snapped, eager to get away from this conversation. He fought against Riku's grip, but he failed to break it. Riku was clearly determined.

"Please don't continue to irritate him. I don't want to see anything happen to him, especially if he continues to protect you. I doubt he really wants to hate you. He's too good of a person to hate someone for too long," Riku said firmly, wanting his message to get across to the stubborn Axel. The redhead tried to violently jerk his hand out of Riku's vice-like hold, feeling the teen respond by tightening his grip. Axel winced a little as nails dug into his skin. 'God...he's being so persistent!' he thought grimly, trying so hard to ignore the feelings of nails digging into his skin. If Riku wasn't careful, he'd break the skin.

"Stop it! Just leave alone already. God, just fuck off!" Axel screamed, careful to keep the scream quiet enough so that the librarian didn't come and inspect what was happening. Almost letting out a yelp as Riku's nails broke his skin, Axel could feel a few drops of blood running down his fingers. Why did he care so much about this? Axel wanted to run now, not happy with the way Riku was trying to get his message across.

"Please. He's my friend and I don't want to see him hurt at all. Be it because of you or because of Seifer's gang taking things out on him." Axel finally forced Riku's hand off his wrist, barely taking in Riku's words, though they were there in his head. Axel glared at Riku as the silver haired teen turned and walked away, saying, "He's a good guy at heart. Kind." Axel watched Riku turn and walk behind a bookshelf and heard the door opening not long after. The teen looked down at his books, lost in thought. Was he really hurting Roxas by getting the blond to hate him? How could that even be true? His insides certainly seemed to agree with Riku. Shaking his head, he resumed his walking, knowing lunch had to be ending soon. Might as well check out now and head back. He glanced down on his wrist, noticing the marks that the silver haired teen had left. They weren't bad, but they had bled a little, making a few drops of blood run down his arm. Axel wiped them away, feeling he was getting too familiar with bleeding lately.

Suddenly, Axel tripped over something, his books falling ahead of him as he was forced to let go of them so that he could land on his hands instead of his face. Wincing, he moved so that he sat against the bookshelf, trying to figure out what made him fall like that. His emerald eyes caught sight of a sketchbook. _Namine._ Namine? Who was that and why was it vaguely familiar. A hand reached out to pick up the pad, remembering that there was a Namine in his class. This was probably one of her many drawing pads. She probably just dropped in on the way out of the library and forgot about it. Tracing his fingers over the border of the book. He contemplated opening it, but he knew it would be such a violation of privacy that he could easily get yelled at once Namine came back to find it.

The pages of the sketchpad flipped open as Axel glanced at the first few pictures in a bored manner. These were the common drawings of an artistic girl, nothing more. Then, suddenly, the next few pages caught his interest. It was a city, a city that was new to Axel but still familiar. Where had he seen it before? He wondered as he took it all in. It was a city, dark, oh yes, but with glowing signs on the buildings everywhere. No one was on the streets, strangely, even though the city seemed to be lit up like a dance club. There were only two people out in the city on the page; Axel and Roxas, but in black cloaks. W-what was this? How did Namine come up with it? But... why did it seem like Axel had actually done that and had been in that city with Roxas. A shock ran through Axel's brain, causing him to reach up and grip his head slightly as the pain faded, leaving a throbbing sensation. He finally remembered something, something so familiar;

_The redheaded man leaned against a building, wondering what was happening now with the blond. The said blond walked across the sidewalk, with a purpose and an air of leaving. Axel looked as he heard the steps. 'Roxas? Where are you going?' The blond turned his head a little to look at Axel, their faces not at all brightened by the neon lights that were scattered along the street. _

_'I...want to know why I have the keyblade.. Why it chose me...why?' Roxas looked at his hands, which he had lifted up a little. 'Why did it choose me?' He seemed to be asking that openly, not directly to Axel. The redhead crossed his arms._

_'Do you really need to know?' he said, an edge to his voice, though Roxas failed to notice it._

_'Yes. Besides..' Roxas paused, lowering his hands and starting to walk away again. '...no one would miss me.' As Roxas disappeared into the darkness, Axel knew he wasn't going to see the Roxas he knew again. Maybe the next life?_

_'I would..' Axel said grimly, sadness filling his voice. Nobodies don't have emotions, but with Roxas , Axel felt like he did._

Axel shut his eyes tightly, trying to grasp the vision, to hold it in place, but it fizzled away. He couldn't remember it, but the feeling of immense sadness and lose covered Axel like a blanket. Was it the memory, or whatever it was, that brought those feelings? What was causing him to remember things that were his but not at the same time? Namine? Maybe it was the drawings. Maybe it was Axel and him having an overactive imagination. Why did he have to get these visions. He didn't want them. He knew he had to make sure.

Just as he was about to turn the page, the sketch pad was pulled out of his grasp. Namine stood over Axel, holding the pad close to her. Axel looked back at her, curious. Namine looked fearful though, afraid that Axel would question her about what she had drawn. "Please... don't ask about them... I... I.. don't know why I drew them." With that, she turned and ran down the aisle, the librarian shouting at her, though Namine had already run out of the library. The woman at the checkout desk huffed a little, hands on her hips. Clearly, she wasn't happy about the commotion in her rather quiet library. Sighing, Axel stood up and picked up his books. He had to get out of there, to forget about the memory he saw (though he couldn't remember it clearly at all).

Handing the woman the book, he told her his library number. Punching in the number, the woman nodded and scanned the book's bar code with a beep. "Alrighty, this is going to be due... the week before winter break. You need it for an Art History assignment, right?" Axel merely nodded as he took the book and exited the library, wondering when things would finally sound sane to him. Who knew for certain?


	7. Confrontation

**Disclaimer:** I do not own KH and it's characters.

**Author's Note: **Hehehehehe! Two updates in one day:D be happy. Anyway, this one is only marginally better than the last one. Sorry about it, but I think it's still pretty gosh darn good. So reviews are loved as always. Enjoy!

* * *

Everything interesting always seemed to happen on the streets as Roxas was walking home. Though lately, things had quieted down so drastically, especially after the fiasco with Axel a few weeks ago. Roxas had been avoiding the redhead and had been fairly sure that he was being ignored as well. That didn't stop Roxas from constantly seeing Axel everywhere. Every single day he saw him in two of his classes; Math and Art History. It didn't help that he lived practically across the street from the guy and that Axel was the one that always went to get the mail about the time that Roxas did. The blond didn't know if it was deliberate, but they always seemed to see each other in the afternoon on any day, getting the mail. Roxas sometimes saw Axel walking ahead of him on the way home from school. At times, he knew that the redhead was close behind him. It was like someone up there hated Roxas, or at least wanted to cause him some mayhem. Well, this certainly was getting to annoying. He was _sick_ of seeing him everywhere. Just looking at him brought up guilty feelings and Roxas hated feeling guilty about anything.

For the past three weeks he had been feeling so irritable that he actually yelled at his mom for her cooking skills. Although she hadn't reacted, Roxas knew that she understood that something was going on with him. Of course, she had no idea what it was. She probably thought that he was starting to get stressed with homework and all the assignments that high school just happened to give him. Then again, she might have also thought that Roxas had finally, _finally_, had gotten a crush. It was one of his mother's dreams to see Roxas married off to a pretty girl who would provide him pretty children with _good_ cooking skills. Of course, she probably had already figured out where the ceremony was going to be and where the party was going to be and who exactly was going to be on the guest list. It was kind of scary. It was whenever she'd start pestering him to get a girlfriend, that he wished the woman had birthed herself a daughter too. That could've saved him a bunch of time, plus he could easily avoid his mother's constant trips to the mall for clothing. He couldn't believe just how often she seemed to want to go buy clothing for him. Sometimes Roxas' father helped him, but his mother had a way of sneaking around that. Mothers were just sneaky that way.

Roxas shifted his backpack slightly, missing his bike. He wished that there wasn't frost and snow on the ground, and then he could've used the bike. If he used the bicycle, he probably would've slipped off of it and landed into the street and right at a car. Since he didn't have a death wish, Roxas was stuck walking to and from school every day, unless his father was nice enough to give him a ride, which he hadn't been that day. His father had gotten up around six in the morning to go to work at his chiropractic clinic and wasn't due home until six that night. Mr. Reigen was a chiropractor and helped run a decent sized clinic with a rather nice group of staff, his mother sometimes included. Actually, Roxas didn't really know what his mother did since half the time she stayed at home and did random things, while the rest of the time she was a secretary at her husband's clinic. The blond teen tried to remember what his father had said about what she had worked as prior to marrying him. He searched his memory for that and thought it had to do with selling houses. No wait, it was probably selling books. No... Roxas had no idea what his mother used to do.

The wind slacked a little as Roxas began to walk past the alley where he had seen Axel beaten a bit by the school's 'disciplinary committee'. Raising his collar, Roxas winced as a particularly annoying gust of wind blew airborne snow right into his face. Man, what he wouldn't do to drive his mom's car to school, especially since he'd gotten his driver's license over the summer. Of course he couldn't. Suddenly, Roxas felt something grab his wrist and pull him into the alley. His assailant pushed Roxas against the wall, but surprising not hard. Yet the blond teenager had his eyes closed and had started trying to pound at the assailant's chest. He was reward with a winded sound, but once he opened his eyes, he felt instantly ashamed of himself. It was Axel, with one arm on the wall on both sides of the blonde's head, looking right back at him, trying to regain his breath. Axel was close enough to Roxas that the blond teen could see the upside-down tear drops tattooed on his face. Didn't those usually mean that the person had killed someone? Actually, Axel was so close that Roxas could feel the redhead's breath on his face. He could even smell the mint of the gum he was chewing. He was making the blonde's pulse race. No one had been this close before, and it scared the shit out of him.

Axel looked down as he forced himself to take deep breaths. He could do this, he knew he could. He just had to swallow his pride a little bit first. Roxas swallowed, his backpack slipping off of his shoulders; he could feel the wall at his back more clearly as the bag slid further off his shoulders. The shorter male pressed his hands together and intertwined his fingers to warm them. What did the redhead want in this unseemly weather? Actually, Axel was wondering the same thing. Why was he doing this during a particularly cold afternoon at the end of November? Was he honestly an idiot? He probably was, since he had been acting like a jerk the whole month. Closing his eyes, Axel waited for a moment, collecting his thoughts. Roxas squirmed a little, uncomfortable at the closeness. It was awkward, oh boy, was it awkward.

"What do you want from me?" Axel's eyes shot open though they looked down in a guilty manner as Roxas demanded an answer. He didn't want to stand here for so long just talking. He wanted to run home and get into his nice and warm shower before buckling down to do his Art History assignment on Da Vinci. Roxas raised his arms and crossed them, holding in the warmth with the help of his coat. Axel's breath continued to hit his face gently. For some reason, Roxas noticed the differences in height; Axel was clearly a head taller, maybe even more. It didn't help that his hair took added about six inches of height. "Can you get on with it, already? It's kind of cold, if you hadn't noticed," Roxas said, trying to cover his actual interest in the matter.

"Roxas... I..." Axel paused, unsure. What did he have to be unsure about? He was just there to apologize, nothing more. Of course, he did happen to be standing in a very suggestive position and Roxas noticed it by the way he was squirming. "I'm sorry for the way I've been acting with you... and a bunch of other people." That sounded about right, Axel thought, a wind making his stiff hair wave a little. The smaller teen looked down, equally unsure of how to answer to that. What did he have to answer it for? Would anything change if he did? He didn't want to answer; he just wanted to run away.

"Does it matter... at all, whether you're sorry or not? You hate people, I get it. You should just leave if you hate it here so much," the blond replied quietly. Axel raised his gaze to meet Roxas' own gaze. There was that feeling of immense loss and sadness again. It had happened in the library and here it was again, though so much stronger now. He wanted to lose it, but it wouldn't budge. It was clearly coming from the way that Roxas had replied. He had said it in such a saddened tone that Axel couldn't help it. God, what was wrong with him?

"Can't you just say that's it's okay?" Axel pleaded unwillingly. Roxas looked down in surprise. Why was he begging?

"I-I don't want to. I'm supposed to hate you." It was Axel's turn to look surprised. He didn't understand that for a moment before he realized that Roxas was probably still upset about the way he had been spoken to. Then, giving a small, muffled sound of surprise, Axel watched helplessly as Roxas slipped underneath his right arm. The blond gripped his bag and pulled on, jogging to get away from Axel. Was he insane?! What was going in that red head of his?! Roxas mentally swore at the other teen, his head down as he carefully increased his speed, leaving Axel standing in the alley, confused.

* * *

The moment that Roxas had gotten home he had slammed his backpack down on his bed. Then he went downstairs and had a quick dinner and told his dad that he had to work on homework. Even though he had wanted a shower almost desperately, he really felt more like finishing that assignment and calling Sora for a very nice chat. Dumping the contents of his bag on his bed, Roxas pulled out the binder for Art History and leafed through it to the several pages of questions abut Da Vinci. Placing the binder on the desk with his computer, Roxas turned on the screen and opened a new page on his internet browser. Going instantly to one of the art links that Aeris had provided, Roxas began to fill in the blanks and answered the questions as best as his otherwise preoccupied mind could. Gnawing on the end of his mechanical pencil, the blond scrolled down the page, looking for the answer to the last question about half an hour after he had started the sheets. He stared at the assignment, his mind at a blank on what to answer. Grumbling, he got up and went into the bathroom, intent on getting that shower.

_My sanctuary, my sanctuary, yeah_

_Where fears and lies melt away_

_Music will tie_

The blond quickly exited the bathroom, steam escaping with the open door. The teen had already put on his sleeping pants and had quickly thrown on a shirt and sweater in the bathroom. Roxas quickly jutted his hand towards the vibrating cell phone. Flipping it open, he saw the screen said 'Sora'. "Talk to me." Roxas heard Sora chuckle at the other end.

"Hey, Roxy," Sora said, ignoring the annoyed 'shuttup' that Roxas gave. "I know you're probably busy, but I gotta ask you a question about that math assignment today." Roxas groaned inwardly, not looking forward to sharing his answers with his friend. That's what Sora called for half the time on a school night.

"Gah fine. What?" He began, waiting for Sora to answer. Their conversation revolved around the math problems for a little while with Sora asking for help every few minutes with pretty much every problem. Then once they had finished their discussion on all the ways to irritate students with math, Sora suddenly asked him what was up.

"You seem so preoccupied even though you're talking to me," he said, curiously.

"Oh... I..." Roxas had been thinking about none other than Axel and how he had apologized to him only a few hours ago. Sora clicked his tongue impatiently on the other end of the phone. "Sorry... I... this afternoon, Axel cornered me in that alley near my street, remember? And he..." Sora gave an exasperated sigh.

"Oh god, he what? He sang you a song? He gave you a cookie? He kissed you? What?" Sora said, clearly serious about the last suggestion. Roxas gave a disgusted look even though he knew perfectly well that Sora couldn't see it.

"What?! Ew! No! That's sick. I'm straight so don't even suggest it," Roxas practically screamed in reply.

"Hehe, I never said you did. I said HE. HE. God... so continue!"

"Gah, fine. He apologized." Silence greeted his words.

"You made such a big deal out of... that?" Sora said, clearly not happy with the answer. "And here I thought he asked you out." Sora gave a laugh, infuriating Roxas.

"No! I hate him! You know I do!"

"Of course I know. You won't let me forget it since you pretty much tell me that every. Single. Day," the brunette replied, his merry tone gone. In fact, it had acquired an edge. Since when did Sora get angry at his best friend?

"Sorry, but honestly-" He got cut off by Sora saying "Look I have to go." Roxas sighed, knowing perfectly well that Sora didn't want to talk to him anymore. "Bye, Roxas." The blond knew Sora wasn't happy since he hadn't used 'Roxy'. Roxas said his good-byes, writing down the final answer to the question on the sheet. Yawning, he turned off his computer completely after stowing away all his completed homework. Getting up, he shed his shirt and sweater. Shutting off the lights, he crawled into bed, putting his head on his hands as he stared up at the ceiling with the blanket covering his chest.

He saw nothing in the ceiling, but he was thinking. Had he really been complaining about Axel that much? Why couldn't Sora have just said something if it was that annoying? It certainly sounded like he had been annoyed. Why though? Why? Roxas turned to lie on his side, staring at the wall. He pulled the covers over his shoulder and tried to fall asleep.

That night, he dreamed about Axel.


	8. Assignment or Punishment?

**Disclaimer:** I do not own KH.

**Author Notes: **Well, this was a pain in the butt to write. Not really xD it was kind of fun. Suspense! Yes, it's good for you so eat it with a spoon. Reviews are loved, as always. Enjoy!

* * *

"... and our meteorologists are predicting heavy snow falls tonight, though the amount is difficult to determine. We're suggesting that you do not go anywhere far from home tonight and prepare your shovels for the morning. And now moving on to the south, the weather seems to be a bit better than around this area here..."

Roxas sat on the couch, a cup of coffee in his hand. His father was sitting right beside him, watching the weather report. It was clear that they were going to end up with a mountain of snow the next morning since there seemed to be a copious amount of red on the map; there were even a few dots of white which meant intensely crazy snow fall. The man on the couch gave a whistle as the weatherman continued to talk about the increasing chances of snow all over the country. Roxas' mother stuck her head into the room and waggled her finger at the man. "No whistling in the house or we won't have any money," she said softly, winking. Her husband chuckled as Roxas rolled his eyes at her. She and her superstitions. This was so common that Roxas no longer questioned it or where she even picked such a thing up. Probably her own parents taught that to her.

Roxas' father looked out the window, watching flakes falling down lightly. It wasn't snowing at all thickly yet, but they knew it'd get worse before it got better. Roxas looked at the time on the cable box and almost leapt up. He was going to be late if he didn't leave! Hell, he was going to be late anyway! Why oh why didn't he leave earlier? Roxas practically screamed at the top of his lungs as he ran up the stairs to his room, his coffee still in his hand, bare feet making a splunching noise with each step. The teen almost tripped over his chair as he ran over to his dresser and pulled out his sock drawer viciously. He picked up his backpack, which still held his finished assignment for Aeris, and gripped it in the hand that also held his pair of socks. Man, oh man, he was so late! Mr. Tokai was seriously going to go anal oh the poor blond. Roxas took the steps two at a time and leaped four steps to land on the ground floor. Roxas suddenly stopped as he felt a firm hand on his shoulder. Turning, he saw his father laughing at him.

"Relax. I'll drive you. Give me five minutes." Laughing again, the man went upstairs at a medium pace, each step making a squeaking noise. Roxas grumbled as he plopped himself down on the tiled floor, feeling his rear end touch the cold floor. Shuddering, he separated his folded socks and started jamming them on his feet. It felt good to feel the warmth in his toes. Wiggling them for a minute, Roxas looked up the stairs, waiting for his dad to come down. Suddenly, the house phone started to ring. Roxas almost got up to get it when the sound stopped and he heard his dad talk on it upstairs. After a few moments, he heard a click as the door to his parents' room opened. The tall blond adult walked down the stairs rapidly, motioning for Roxas to get up. The teen shook his head as he opened the closet door from the floor.

"Uh that was Mr. Kasai. It seems their garage door is jammed." Roxas blinked at his father, wondering what that really had to do with him. The teen pulled out his shoes and began to fit his feet into them. "And we're going to have another passenger with us, today, Rox." The teen stopped in the middle of tying his shoe. "Sorry, but they can't drive Axel so they asked me to do it." Roxas wanted to groan out loud but he couldn't. His father didn't know about what happened between the two of them. Roxas wasn't stupid enough to inform his parents about it since they'd make a big deal out it and who knew where'd it spin off to? Roxas finished tying his shoes as he followed his father through the house to the garage. They paused at the kitchen so that Roxas could take his lunch from his mom. "Have a nice day, hun," she said cheerily. Roxas gave a weak smile as he turned to follow his dad.

As his father opened the van, Roxas squirmed into his coat. Then, as the clink of the lock sounded, Roxas pulled open one of the back doors and pushed his backpack through before sitting down. His father gave him a strange glance as he made sure he had buckled up. "Are you sure you're alright with Axel coming? You haven't said that much about him at all. Do you like him or do you dislike him?" he pried, starting the car. He adjusted his rear view mirror a little and pressed the garage door button.

"No... He's... fine. I'm just... No it's alright." Roxas watched the garage door open, each part climbing up over them with a rattle. The teen returned his view to the outside, watching the snow piling up ever so slightly. The driver whistled again, shifting gears to drive. "Man dad... it's going to be a snow day tomorrow for sure at this rate." The man gave a response by chuckling as he pulled out of the garage, turning as the drive ended. "Oh wait..." Roxas hit himself dramatically on the head. "Tomorrow's Saturday. Well then I hope there's enough snow left here on Monday for a snow day!" He laughed, leaning against the door. He was pretty much laughing to mask the way his body was tensing up. He didn't want to spend a car ride with Axel sitting in front of him. He had only sat in the back so he didn't have to worry about Axel staring at the back of his head.

The door to the passenger side of the front opened and a red messenger back fell to the flower. Axel's spiky red hair slipped into the car with the teen having an empty smile on his face. "Hello, Mr. Reigen." Axel turned his head to Roxas, his smile still bland as uncooked and unseasoned tofu. "Hello Roxas." Roxas returned his dull grin, his eyes empty. "Hey." Roxas father gave a smile to the greeting and shifted gears again as Axel closed the door with a slam. A click ran through the car as the doors were locked. So Roxas was trapped in the car by his father's safety actions. Who knew his father would be the one to help cause him discomfort? That was probably part of the job; to annoy your children until they move out of the house for good. Damn, Roxas still had two years before he moved anywhere. Yay for headaches caused by overly loving parents.

Roxas stared out the window, feeling the tension pile up in the car like the snow did on the sidewalks outside. Was all that pressure coming from him or was it from Axel? He couldn't tell. The driver turned on the radio, tuning into one of the more popular stations.

"...In you and I there's a new land

Angel's in flight

wonk uoy naht noitceffa erom deen I

My sanctuary, my sanctuary, yeah

Where fears and lies melt away

Music will tie

wonk uoy naht noitceffa erom deen I

What's left of me what's left of me now?

I watch you fast asleep

All I fear means nothing..."

The teen listened to the tune, singing along in his head. He had part of the song's lyrics as his cell's ring tone. Obviously it was one of the more popular songs on the radio those days. He wondered how the artist came up with the idea to write it. As his mind drifted around the thought of the song, he managed to ignore the polite conversation that ensued with Axel and Mr. Reigen. It was about what classes Axel was talking and blah blah. Roxas didn't care to join the conversation at all. Then, almost hitting his head on the seat in front of him, the car stopped in front of the school. Roxas opened the door a moment after Axel did, dragging his backpack out with him.

"Thanks, Mr. Reigen for the ride," Axel said, his dull smile present again. The man in the car shrugged, "No problem."

"Bye dad... will you pick me up later?" Roxas questioned which was followed by his father nodding his head and closing the window. The tires made a rumbling noise on the pressed down snow as the car drove off home. The blond turned to face the school to see that Axel had already gone inside.

"God... that wasn't actually as bad as I thought it'd be," he said to no one in particular, shouldering his backpack as he walked down the path to the school.

* * *

"...and so that's the end of the class. As always, make sure to right down the assignment in your agenda and make sure you take your text book home tonight. I wasn't happy with the fact that about six of you failed to do your homework because you managed to forget your book." Mr. Tokai's voice echoed through the room as he put down the marker he had been using for the lesson. A chorus of shuffling ensued at his words, everyone packing up.

Roxas stared at the back of Sora's head. The brunette had been so formal with him when he came in to class today. Namine had even raised her eyebrows in question but didn't say anything. Riku and Kairi had yet to figure out that the dream team was on a hiatus. Namine probably understood that. Hell, even the teacher, the _teacher_, noticed it. As Roxas exited the classroom, Mr. Tokai watched him carefully, trying to figure out what the heck had gone wrong with the duo. Sora ignored his closest friend as they walked through the halls. They turned at the same hall but in different directions. Was that were they were headed with their friendship? Things had been slowly wearing thin lately with them, particularly with Sora concerned about Kairi. And Riku too, probably, added Roxas mentally.

The door to the Art History room stood wide open as Roxas approached it. Passing underneath the frame, he caught the attention of Aeris. She was in one of her usual pastel colored suits, today being a soft pink dress. She smiled warmly at him as he put down his bag on his desk. After a moment of rummaging, he brought out the class's binder and pulled out the assignment. Roxas walked down the rows of desks, trying very hard to ignore Axel who was sitting near the window. He placed the stapled papers into the basket on the desk that Aeris was leaning on. "Thank you, Roxas." He nodded in response as he returned to his seat. Several people noisily entered the class room, making Aeris's penetrating glance shift to them. She knew something was up and she was going to do something about it. But what was she going to try to fix?

Everyone filtered to their seats, the assignments turned in. Aeris closed the door and backtracked to her desk, fingers resting on the pile of homework. "Good job guys, I saw every single person turn their stuff in today. Let's keep it up, alright?" The young teacher moved to behind her desks, opening one of her drawers and pulling out a bunch of green colored folders. The class watched her carefully, some people sitting more straight up. Tapping the folders with her pointer finger, Aeris began, "This guys, is going to be one of the major projects of the class that you're going to get. Seeing as it's almost winter break, it's probably going to be the only one." A chorus of moans was her reply. "Never the less, I want you guys to ignore the fact that your break is coming up. I want to see great projects!" As Aeris began to walk down the aisles and hand out the folders, a few people avidly whispered to each other, picking each other as partners. Aeris gave a sly smile as all the folders were passed out and she returned to the front. "Okay guys, open your folders and on the first page you'll see the name of your partner."

A wave of opening folders came. Roxas looked around, not daring to test his luck with this. Suddenly, he felt Axel gaze at him. He looked down at his folder as his shaking hand opened it. _Axel Kasai._ Aeris knew how problematic things got with the two of them and she was trying to help. Roxas knew if he spent over an hour with the guy he'd kill him. Not a good thing to do to a partner. Aeris sat down at her desk, her head resting on the back her hands, a coy smile on her lips. Suddenly Axel stood up, making all the eyes turn to him. Even Roxas followed his path to the desk at the front. The redhead leaned over the desk to quietly talk to Aeris. The class stopped staring at Axel and returned to their conversations. Roxas watched as Aeris shook her head and Axel sighed. Clearly he had asked to be given a partner change. The redhead turned and walked past the other students, right towards the blond. He looked down him, emotionless. "Are you free tonight?"

"Uh... yeah?" Roxas said uncertainly. Where else would he be besides home on a stormy November Friday?

"Do you want to get started on the project tonight around seven, then?" Axel seemed to want to finish this thing soon.

"Uh... sure... but can we make it around seven forty five? Dinner's at seven for me..." Axel nodded in agreement and returned to his seat, acting as though nothing had happened. Several girls were carefully looking at Roxas, making him wonder why. A squeaking sound echoed through the room as Aeris pushed the projector to the center of the room. Clapping her hands together, she waited for everyone to settle down. A girl in the front row got up and flicked off the lights.

"Alright guys, enough chatter, we still have a class to do right now. Now I'm going to go over the basic information in your packets. You'll notice that you are already assigned a particularly famous artist to study..." Roxas glanced down at his folder, noticing the name 'Monet' on his page in Aeris's neat handwriting. He gave a sigh of relief. Monet was an easy artist to do; he was ridiculously famous. They had even done a brief unit on one of his paintings. This was going to be an easy and fast project. Roxas smiled, knowing he probably wouldn't even have to spend over five hours with Axel. That'd be fine, since he wasn't ready to catch Axel being talkative again.

* * *

"Are you going now?" rang out Roxas' mother's warm tones. The teen bent over to pick up the messenger bag that was usually kept in his closet. Inside of it there was the cursed green folder along with a few other things that Roxas had printed out once he had gotten home about Monet and some of his paintings. The woman walked into the entrance hall, holding a box. "Take this with you as a treat for you and Axel to share." Roxas took the box from her after putting on the messenger bag. He flipped open the lid and smelled the chocolate drifted up at him. Brownies! Roxas looked up at his mother, smiling. The brunette woman leaned in and gave Roxas a kiss. "You behave now, you hear? His parent's are going to be over here so if we hear screaming, we'll come running," she joked, making Roxas roll his eyes. "Now off you go!" She pushed her son out the door she had opened, forcing him to walk fast in the snow; it had increased that by now the snow had reached about eight inches on the sides of the sidewalk. Roxas ran fast across the street before stopping at the door. Before he could knock the door opened to reveal the Kasai parents dressed for a quick walk across the snow.

"We saw you coming. Come in, come in!" The pair stepped back, letting Roxas step into the well lit entrance hall. "We're sorry that we seem like we're just rushing off, but we want to watch the movie before we get stuck." The redheaded woman laughed as she and her husband stepped outside and closed the door. Axel suddenly appeared, locking the door with a turn of the knob. He was dressed in what he had worn for school. He opened his closet door without a word and waited for Roxas to take off his things. He complied, stripping down to his casual wear [[not his underwear, you perverts :o . Axel put the coat on a hanger as Roxas lined his shoes up at the bottom. Rising up, Roxas waited for Axel to speak, feeling rather awkward.

"Alright, shall we get started then?" And without further ado, Axel turned at started heading up the stairs. Roxas shrugged as he followed him. Axel walked down the hall at the top of the stairs with Roxas still trailing after him. A slightly ajar room caught Roxas' attention as he passed by it. He saw the edge of a desk and a computer, part of a bed and a rather messy floor. Not able to stop, Roxas paused at the office space that Axel had entered. "I got some information before dinner so we wouldn't have to do much right now."

"I did too." Roxas pulled out the papers from his bag, putting them on the desk which Axel had sat down at. The redhead took the papers and glanced them over, eyes darting over all the information. After shuffling the papers a bit, Axel put them down and nodded a little.

"That's good stuff you found. We'll definitely use it." Roxas was taken aback a bit at the use of 'we'. He wondered who Axel was referring to. Then, almost hitting himself for his stupidity, he realized that it was him and Axel that was being referred to. "So.. let's get to work?" Roxas nodded as Axel turned the screen of the computer on. A word document popped up. "Okay... let's make this a good project then."

* * *

Time passed by quickly, and Roxas found himself not hating the time he was forced to spend at Axel's house. In fact, he liked it. It was mainly because of the fact that all they did was work and talk about the topic they were doing. The conversations never strayed elsewhere and Axel didn't bring up with happened the day before. Axel even seemed to enjoy himself a little. They had even eaten half of the brownies and were always eyeing the rest hungrily, though they were saving them for later. Roxas was in charge of arranging and planning out the poster board they were going to use for their presentation, while the redhead was in charge of gathering information and telling Roxas said information. Axel glanced at the time on the bar at the bottom of screen and almost yelped. It was already ten thirty! Roxas glanced at the redhead, trying to figure out what was wrong.

"It's half past ten..." Roxas opened his mouth and his eyes widened. He scrambled up and went to the window, making Axel wonder why. He pulled back the curtain and moaned as he looked down on the street. He could barely make out the lights at his house; the snow was that thick! He knew there was no way he was going to get out of the house now, sure that the snow had fallen over a foot. A vibration in the blonde's pocket made him jump. He flipped open the black phone, "Hey Mom."

"Sorry hun, the snow's way too thick outside. Axel's parents are staying here tonight and they say you two should stay put." Roxas swallowed, a silence stretching between him and his mother. "Hun?"

"Yeah sorry. I'm here. I'll tell Axel."

"Do be careful. They say the power may go out. I'm surprised we have a signal. Well, hun, take care. I just wanted to make sure you were okay." With that, the two said their farewells for the night. Roxas turned away from the window. He walked to the wall, put his back to it, and slid down. Staring up at the ceiling with blank eyes, he thought what his mother said over. Axel wandered timidly over to him. Roxas turned to him.

"What was that about? Shouldn't you get home?"

"I... can't..." Roxas answer, mind racing. This wasn't good!

"... what?" Axel raised one of his thin eyebrows, emerald eyes filling with suspicion.

"The snow is too hard. It built up too high. They say the power might go out. Mom asked me to stay here..." Axel groaned a little, clearly not happy about Roxas staying. Really though, he was upset that the power was going to go out. They couldn't work on their stuff anymore. The redhead returned to the computer and saved all his files and bookmarked pages before shutting it off. Roxas sat with his legs close to his body, his arms on his knees and his head on his arms. This wasn't going to turn out well at all.


	9. Clean White Snow

**Disclaimer:** I DO NOT OWN KH!!! I wish I did though xD

**Author's note:** Wow… sorry this took a while, and I mean a while. I was kind of busy for a while and then I was just.. yeah. xD sorry to leave you guys in suspense but here it is. The blizzard. BTW, the movie they watch is the Fifth Element. Google it if you don't know. :) Lotsa love to you guys that are so patiently waiting. Enjoy!

* * *

The snow around the neighborhood had failed to stop. It had still been snowing persistently when Roxas received the call from his mother. It wouldn't, in fact, let up until five in the morning. Even then it would take over two hours for the snow ploughs to get through all the streets. It was going to be called a horrible blizzard that wouldn't melt for a while. School was going to be canceled that Monday and most work places were shut down for the weekend _and_ Monday. Of course, Roxas felt like he wasn't going to survive the night. And it was only Friday. And he was very, very sure that he was going to get killed by Axel. Or, if that didn't happen, he was going to kill Axel instead. He found it so unlikely that he'd survive the night that he was ready to start writing out his will. Of course, Axel had no such intentions and was just annoyed that he was going to lose power. He wanted the stupid project over and done with so that he could go back to his quiet weekends at home. Who ever said life was fair?

Roxas had his back to the wall, head in his hands and his hands in his knees. He was in denial. This was not going to end well and he knew that something horrendous was going to happen. The only thing he had a hard time dealing with was the 'something's gonna happen' part. What was going to happen? Only time would tell.

Axel happened to be staring out the window, not really sure of what they were going to do now. He didn't know whether or not he cared that the one guy that he knew hated him with a passion was staying for the night. He was torn between worrying for the furniture and vases, and a quiet night of chatting and new found friendship. Axel scoffed. Roxas suddenly befriending him in a night? That was about as likely as a mutant snowman coming into the house and asking for a grilled cheese sandwich. Actually, he'd rather have the evil mutant snowman rather than let Roxas stay and possibly destroy his possessions. The redhead dropped his arm to his side, letting the gossamer curtain fall neatly in place. He turned to gaze at Roxas, wondering what to do now. The blond, meanwhile, was trying to self-destruct. The redhead crouched beside the angsty blond. Axel placed his hand on Roxas shoulder, startling him as his head shot up and he tipped over to the side. Axel just had his hand up in the same position as it was before the blond fell.

Rising, Roxas rubbed the side of his head, which had come in contact with the hardwood floor. "Ow...geez..." He gave Axel an annoyed look, who simply lower his hand back into his lap. Other than that movement, he really didn't move. Roxas kept staring back, slowly getting unnerved. "...what...?" Axel shook his head lightly as he stood up, as though he had been spacing out. The blond breathed a sigh of relief as Axel went to the computer desk and began tidying up the papers. Roxas stood too, moving to the part of the floor where he had been working on the presentation layout. He picked up all the things and jammed the loose papers into the horrid green folder and everything that was too big, he just pushed to the wall, knowing he could just take care of that in the morning. Axel, having finished stood at the door, gazing into his hallway. The blond moved up behind him, standing still, wondering what to do now.

"Let's go get some things," suddenly said Axel. He began moving down the hall to a closet. Opening the door, he scanned the shelves.

"What things?" Roxas said quietly. He as picturing some horrible weapon that would cause a large amount of pain when inserted into his back.

"Blanket... Extra pillow..." Axel reached into the middle of the closet, clearly trying to grip something. He suddenly tugged, but nothing came out. His hand was still in the closet. "Can you help me pull this thing out? It's jammed in there pretty badly." Roxas didn't say a word and reached in, not feeling his bare arm brush against Axel's. However, the redhead noticed and he looked down a little, distracted. Roxas began to pull, forcing Axel to help and return his mind to the task at hand. In a few moments the large pillow was in Roxas hands as he followed the redhead to another room. Axel went into this room, not bothering to close the door. Roxas couldn't resist; he entered the room and placed the pillow on the large chair that stood near the door.

The walls were painted blue, but most of the wall was covered with posters of rock bands, movie stars, and anime characters. Surprising, the walls were devoid of the one thing most guys had; pictures of hot girls on hot cars in skimpy bikinis. In fact, there were barely any real girls on the walls. The only girls were in the bands, movies, or anime series. That was weird. Wasn't Axel a seventeen year old guy? Don't most seventeen year old guys like to look at pictures of slutty girls and get turned on beyond reason? Roxas didn't do that either, but he wasn't seventeen yet and he doubted he'd be one of those perverts.

The bed wasn't made and the floor was littered with the debris of the teenager. In that way, Axel was like the common male teenager. As the redhead entered his closet, looking for an extra blanket, Roxas caught sight of a few photos in frames sitting on the dresser. Taking a quick glance to confirm how preoccupied Axel was, the blond walked to the dresser, hand picking up the nearest frame. It showed a young redheaded boy, maybe about six or seven, hair not spiky yet but fairly untamable. An older boy, maybe five to six years older, was leaning on the younger one's head, laughing. Axel was the younger one, that was obvious, but who was the redheaded older boy? They had the same red hair though it seemed that the similarities ended with that. Roxas glanced at the other pictures, but the strange redhead didn't show up in those.

"Reno..." Roxas looked up at Axel who had moved silently to his side. He looked back at the picture curiously. That really didn't answer any questions. At least the mysterious boy had a name. "...he's my brother..." Roxas kept staring at the photo.

"Where is he? He doesn't seem to live here..." Axel looked away, fists clenched. Roxas recoiled a little. Clearly Axel wasn't happy with his brother, despite the picture.

"He wouldn't... seeing as he's twenty-three and out whoring about his university," the redhead responded venomously. Roxas put down the frame hastily as Axel made his way out of the room. The blond picked up the pillow on the way out, making sure to watch his step down the stairs. Axel had turned on the weather channel, the storm watch in effect. Roxas deposited the pillow on the loveseat and sat down on the couch, listening to the man on the television. He heard something click in the kitchen, though he didn't look back to see.

"Please, do not exit your homes. We fear a power outage will occur so please try and gather candles or, better yet, flashlights in case of emergency. Keep your cell phones on and make sure they're charged while the power is still available..." Roxas leaned back, about to dig into his sweater's pocket for his phone to check the battery level but a cup filled with steaming tea was held over his hands. He took the mug and looked up to watch Axel move from behind the couch and sit down a cushion away from Roxas, holding his own mug of tea. So the click was the electric water heater. Snazzy. Suddenly the TV channel shifted to a movie on HBO, something about a futuristic earth and an alien planet thing coming to destroy humanity.

They sat there watching the movie, feeling the tension in the room build up. Roxas wanted to know why Axel hated his brother so much, but how could he put it so that Axel didn't think Roxas was warming up to him? He wasn't, he told himself. He was just interested in the relationship the two brothers had or have since he himself lacked siblings. This was another moment of his that he wish he were fortunately enough to have a brother to learn from. Even a sister would help. A sister could help make the world of girls so much clearer.

"You want to know about Reno..." It wasn't really a question; it was more like a statement to break the awkward silence that had wrapped around them despite the television's sounds. Roxas turned his head to Axel, feeling a little shameful. Was it so apparent?

"I'm sorry. You don't have to tell me." Axel leaned forward on his elbows which were on his legs, hands clasped and his head bowed a little. Roxas looked back at the television to find the mute sign on the screen. The remote was by the redhead's thigh so it was evident that he had muted the movie.

"No... It's better than just sitting here with the tension building up like a brick wall. It's suffocating..." he said, a cold edge in his voice. It wasn't directed to Roxas himself, but to what he was about to say about his despicable brother. "My brother's name is Reno... he's about 7 years older than me. When we were younger we were the best of friends. But once Reno was old enough to know the pretty girls apart from the less attractive ones, he slowly morphed into a guy that always wanted a woman. That came around the time that he was fourteen or fifteen, I guess. He would baby-sit me and complain how he wanted to go out with his friends. I knew that meant girlfriend.." The knuckles on Axel's hands turned white from how hard he was gripping his hands. Roxas didn't get what the big deal was. So Reno got more into girls and got a social life. So what? "That's not the worst part." Oh. "Last year he broke the last straw."'

"What'd he do?" Roxas whispered, not sure if he wanted to hear.

"One day last year he went to my school for a quick visit to all his old teachers. Unfortunately, he had to hang out with me the whole day in doing so. At lunch he managed to blurt out a little secret of mine that I would have liked to keep private. Dem- I mean... my best friend there sort of.. didn't talk to me after he had found out about it.. All thanks to my dumbass of a brother." Roxas noticed the redhead's clenched hands. He wasn't sure what he could say to comfort him. He didn't have a brother so he couldn't relate. Sora had a brother, but he had left home and hadn't really communicated with the brunette at all. Riku had an older brother too, but like Sora, the brother had left home and refrained from communicating. They didn't hate their brothers. Roxas had no idea what he could have done. He lifted his hand and placed it on Axel's shoulder. Surprisingly, Axel didn't jump at the touch; he merely turned his head and gave Roxas a smile. Not a fake smile. Not a smile like the ones he gave to the teachers at school. It was real. But as quickly as it had come, it faded to an impartial line. Did he just imagine it?

Axel straightened up, forcing Roxas to drop his hand; the redhead was taller even sitting down. The remote was once again in his hands and the channel returned to the weather. The mute sign turned off and the weatherman was talking again.

"We have just received reports that power outages are following the wake of the storm. This area here, we believe, will lose power in about an hour or so." Roxas' heart beat faster. It was his neighborhood that the man pointed to. Axel gave a snicker.

"Well, at least we know when we're going to sit in the dark. Maybe we should go find the flashlights." Roxas gave a silent nod, watching Axel stand up and head to the stairs. "Roxy care to go upstairs and check my room for one of them?" Roxy? Who the hell did Axel think he was?

"I'll go check if you don't call me that again." Axel smirked as he followed Roxas up the stairs. The redhead went into the room that was probably his parents as the blond entered Axel's room. He didn't know why he had to be the one in here. It wasn't his room. What would he find?

Searching the dresser, he found nothing and managed to narrowly avoid seeing Axel's store of underwear. He opened the closet and found something totally different; a shirt that looked way too small to fit Axel. It probably could've fit Roxas if he had cared to try it on. It was blue and had a shiny black music note on the back. Whose was it? Taking the shirt subconsciously, he draped it on the made bed and thought where else a flashlight could hide in a room. He sat down on the bed, hearing the coils squeak. Under the bed! Of course! Getting on all fours, Roxas gazed underneath. He saw a cylindrical shape. He tried to reach it, but couldn't.

Axel walked in at that moment, about to talk about the flashlight he held in his hand when he saw Roxas' ass sticking up in the air. He just stood there, looking at the blonde's rear end. It wasn't everyday a teenaged boy was rummaging underneath his bed with his butt practically in his face (not really, but this is AXEL we're talking about...). Of course, he snapped out of it as he leaned against his doorframe casually. "You know... I doubt my flashlight is THAT far under the bed. I doubt it's even under the bed at all." Roxas suddenly pulled out from under the bed, holding a slightly dusty black flashlight. "Oh well, I guess it was there," he added nonchalantly. Then he turned and headed back downstairs, clearly not caring that Roxas was still in his room.

The blond in question looked back at the t-shirt and sighed. It was probably Axel's, from when he was younger or something. He pushed himself off the floor and went downstairs, flashlight in hand. Axel was lounging on the couch with his feet up on the coffee table, tea in hand. He didn't even look up as Roxas sat down and placed the flashlight on the table. The blond glanced at the cable box and saw that the time was already around midnight. What the hell? How did time go so fast? Leaning back, Roxas stared boredly at the television. He had already seen the movie, which Axel had switched back to. Was the hour almost up.

"We should go to sleep when the power fails." Roxas nodded, getting a little worried about sleeping. What if Axel came and doodled faces on him. No, surely that wasn't going to happen. "You're gonna sleep down here since I doubt my parents want you in their room." Roxas nodded again. They sat there, for another half hour, before lights began to flicker.

Axel and Roxas looked up at the same time, staring at the blinking lights. Then, darkness surrounded them. Roxas' blood ran faster, his fear of the dark trying to take over. He had always been afraid, but he never complained at home. He knew his home. He didn't know this place. Axel grumbled as he stood up, ready to go upstairs to sleep. He stopped abruptly as he felt something catch the back of his shirt. The redhead turned around to see Roxas looked down and his hand gripping the shirt. Before Roxas could speak, Axel sat down on the cushion next to him, gazing intently on him through the dark.

"Can... can you not go upstairs?" Roxas' voice cracked. He didn't like the dark. It was overwhelming him slowly. Could he hold back tears that hadn't come in years because of the dark?

"Why?" Axel responded soothingly, resisting the urge to wrap his hand around Roxas' back. That was way too chummy for them. Roxas swallowed hard. He couldn't believe himself; he wanted Axel, AXEL, to say down here with him. Axel was better than the suffocating darkness. Axel would have to be his light. Roxas chose light.

"I-I hate the dark..." Axel's eyes adjusted enough to notice that Roxas' hands were clenched tightly and his eyes shut. The flashlights lay forgotten on the table.

"Why?" He could only question. "Do you react like this at home?"

"D-don't know... I don't usually mind at h-home since... I know it s-so well. Plus.. my parents are always just down the hall.." Roxas didn't mind spilling his secret. Axel had earned it; he had given Roxas one of his own to keep. It wasn't as bad, but it was still a fair trade. Fair enough, at least.

Axel paused. "Alright. But I have to get my pillow and things, alright? Can you wait for a minute or so?" Roxas nodded stiffly, not moving. Axel stood and Roxas could hear him climb the stairs when he reached them. After a few footsteps and a few squeaky stairs, Axel had returned. "Okay, can I have the couch? I'm too tall for the loveseat." Roxas rose, grabbing the pillow with him and placing it on the loveseat. He lay down on it, facing the material instead of the room. Maybe it'd go way if he turned his back on it? Roxas pulled the blanket over himself, feeling the cloth against his skin. He took a breath, noticing the fresh linen smell mingling with the scent that was definitely Axel's. He tried to ignore it, but it was so hard. Meanwhile, Axel lay staring at the dark, blank ceiling, hands underneath his head and his hands on his pillow. His blanket was pulled up to his chest as he thought. He could hear Roxas shifting a little on the loveseat.

About five minutes had passed when Roxas said softly, "Axel... I don't hate you..." Axel didn't respond; he merely smiled.

* * *


	10. New Points of View

**Disclaimer:** I do not own KH or it's characters!

**Author's Notes: **Wow! This one is LONG! I thought it was going to be really short. So guess what? SEND ME LOVE! Yes, I made it really long just for all of you! Some parts of these are odd since I did them really late at night and the rest are decent. And NO, they don't start making out in the next chapter. :/ but things WILL be interesting with the next one. Oh and the memory you see at the beginning is from KH2 FM Remembrance where they're on the... well you'll see. As always, reviews are loved. Enjoy!

* * *

_"So you're finally awake..." The slumbering blond suddenly awakened, looking up to the one who made the sound. _

_"Axel..." The redheaded man continued to stand and gaze over Twilight Town, thinking it seems. The pair was clearly on the clock tower, high over the town. They did not fear the height though, since they'd been there so many times before. _

_"Nope... Maybe you're going to sleep." Axel said, still gazing forward, a slight edge to his voice. "Soon I won't even be able to talk to your consciousness like this." Roxas looked down on the town, shifting his gaze away from the redhead._

_"I...I'm going back to how I was..." Roxas didn't seem to care whether this was what Axel wanted to hear or not. _

_"I've thought about it a lot. Namine said the same thing," Axel said, ignoring the statement, as he sat down over the clock tower's edge, dangling feet over the edge, matching the blonde's pose. "Roxas... You have a heart, don't you?" Axel turns his head to look at Roxas, who does the same before they both look away as Axel continues, "While Namine and I..." Axel turned to look at Roxas again. "We don't really have hearts, do we?"_

_"I... I don't know either." Roxas shook his head solemnly. Axel lifted his right leg up to rest on the edge, his right hand on his knee._

_"I guess not..." Axel's voice faded a little as he spoke. _

_"But, the heart's not something you can see," the blond said, wanting to make Axel feel better. His voice grew a little more confidant with every word. "I've started wondering whether it's something you can't feel either." Axel seemed to gaze at the back of his hand. "If so, then..." Axel looked at Roxas, expecting something. "Nah, never mind."_

_Axel suddenly turns his upper body to face Roxas as he replies, "Hm? What're you getting at?" He waved his right arm a little to give more emotion to his words._

_"I'm sure Sora'll find the answer." Roxas looked up at the horizon, a slight smile on his face. "Because he's me."_

_Axel scoffed slightly, facing forward again, a smile on his own face as well. "Yep. That's true." Sea salt ice-cream was in front of Roxas face, Axel holding the stick. Roxas took it and Axel began to lick his own popsicle. "This really takes me back. D'you remember? We first met the day you got your new name. And we watched the sunset from up here."_

_"Yeah. This is where I came from," Roxas agreed. The blonde's voice lowered a little, reminiscing. "Everyone... Hayner, Pence, Olette... I hope they're okay."_

_"You should go and see them again, looking for your answer," offered the redhead, softly._

_"Yeah..." Roxas agreed, nodding a little. "So... I have to go. Sora's waiting for me." A look of confusion or sadness, it's hard to tell, crossed Axel's face. _

_Axel looked away. "Yeah. I guess he is." The redhead faced the opposite direction as he bit into the ice-cream. "Whoa. This ice-cream really is salty," he exclaimed, letting the words fall into the silence that ensued. They sat still for a few moments, each lost in thought. _

_Light suddenly began to build around them. Time had run out. Roxas looked up at Axel. "See you, Axel." Axel looked right back and said, "See ya, partner." He finished his farewell with a downhearted look, melancholy. A tear fell, but it was almost impossible to tell who shed it as the Roxas disappeared into the light. _

* * *

Roxas awoke what seemed a few minutes after the dream -or was it memory? - self faded. He practically leapt up from the loveseat. In reality, it had been over an hour since the dream -or was it memory? - had ended. A hand went to his brow as he felt his eyes brim with unknown tears. He brushed them away, unsure of where they came from. Was it that... thing's fault? And more importantly, what was that about. And why... why... was Sora mentioned? Roxas buried his face in the blanket, trying to get rid of the horrible feelings of loss that filled him from that memory. Axel seemed so sad then. Had they been friends? Where, also importantly, was that? It was familiar yet different. Roxas sighed, wondering what time it was. It was clearly morning since it was sunny outside and the light penetrated into the house through the frosted windows. The blond chanced a glance to the couch, hoping to see Axel still sleeping. Axel was gone and the blanket was neatly folded and placed on the pillow.

Sizzling sounds came from the kitchen, making Roxas gaze over the top of the loveseat. He saw Axel's back, standing over the stove with his hand on a frying pan. So Axel was cooking breakfast. Great. Roxas was learning so much from this day that he wondered how he'd remember it all. Quite sarcastic, isn't he? The blond pulled the blanket off and spun his legs over the side of the loveseat. He pushed himself up and made his way to the kitchen. His steps made Axel turn his head a little before returning to cooking. A few broken eggshells lay on the counter near the stove and a half used package of hotdogs stood near the eggshells. The smell of cooking eggs and hotdogs reached Roxas as he sat down at the square kitchen table.

"Morning," he said plainly, stifling a yawn.

"Mhmm. Morning to you, too. Can you get the plates? They're in the cabinet over the dish washer." Axel used his free hand to stir the eggs and meat with a spatula. Roxas stepped to the dishwasher and opened the cabinets, pulling out two large dishes. He also grabbed two tall glasses for drinks. He put the plates near the stove, noting how spacey Axel seemed, despite handling hot metal and burning oil. Something was preoccupying his mind, though he managed to control his hands. "Cutlery is in the drawer near the sink." Roxas opened the drawer and pulled out two forks and two knives and slammed the drawer shut. Meanwhile, Axel had divided the omelet in the pan and had placed two halves on the plates. The redhead had dumped the pan into the sink and filled it with icy water; the pipes were half frozen. He handed one to the blond, who handed Axel in return, a knife and fork. The two moved to the table, sitting side by side instead of opposite from each other. Axel ate his food silently, ignoring the fact that Roxas barely nibbling.

"Axel...?" Roxas said tentively. Axel looked up, surprised to be talked to. He was clearly not totally there. "Something's on your mind..." It wasn't a question. It was a blatantly obvious fact.

"...Yeah... I know," Axel resumed eating, leaving Roxas to lean against his elbows, staring. Axel looked up briefly and noticed the look of annoyance on the blonde's face. He sighed, putting down the fork on the edge of the plate. "I take it you'd like to know why?"

"I'm sorry; did I make it too blatantly obvious that I wanted to know why you were so spacey?" Roxas rolled his eyes, making Axel roll his own in reply.

"Gee, at least the food isn't burned."

"Stop stalling, start talking."

"So demanding. You'll make someone a good wife someday." Axel was stalling, yes. He was simply doing it to torment Roxas.

"Hey!" Roxas shot the redhead a glare, making said redhead titter mockingly.

"My, my." Axel leaned back in his chair, the wood groaning a bit. "If you must know, I had a funny dream."

"A funny dream?" he voiced softly, fingers fiddling with the fork on his plate. Axel nodded, despite the fact that the blond wasn't looking up at all. Roxas stared down at his food. A dream? Was it like the one he himself had? No, that's not possible. Was it?

"Yeah. I don't really know where it came from. Anyway, I was in it (obviously) and I think you wer-" Axel broke off as he saw the curiously intense gaze his was receiving.

"Were we on a clock tower?" The redhead furrowed his forehead, wondering how the hell the blond could have possibly known that. He didn't seem to mind the fact that there was a 'we' there. He didn't notice how he made both of them a pair in a way.

"...Yeah... but how'd you know about that?" Roxas didn't reply this time, his eyes returning to the plate. Axel leaned on his left elbow, giving Roxas a funny look. "Oi, I asked you how you knew that." He almost prodded the blond with a finger, but refrained from doing so. That would have been another moment that the blond could retaliate with kicks or punches.

"Never mind," the blond said quickly, shaking his head in the meantime. "Lucky guess. That's all." He said it with an air of finality; clearly he didn't want to continue this subject. The same dream for both of them, that was just plain weird and it made no sense. "Look, let's just ... not talk about it then." Axel gave a disgusted sigh, seeing as Roxas was the one that had asked in the first place. He didn't continue though, he didn't feel like another fist in his face.

"Fine..." Axel finished off his eggs in silence, Roxas following suit. As the redhead put down his fork, he said, "You know, it might still be a little while before the plows come and we can shovel our way back to your house. We could just finish the project today and not deal with it tomorrow. We could just practice the presentation on our own tomorrow and present on Monday."

"You know, that's a good idea." Roxas said, mildly surprised. It was a logical statement, but the blond had a hard time of seeing Axel as logical. He wasn't stupid, no. Roxas was just sort of out of it. Axel rose, taking the two plates and cutlery with him. The two empty glasses still stood on the counter, forgotten. Roxas let Axel clean up as he went back upstairs to work.

* * *

Things seemed to have gotten better for the pair since that morning, though. Even though they barely talked outside of their project, they still did it and didn't fight. Things really did seem to have started looking up. Roxas' parents managed to get to the house and took him home after the project was completed. Somehow, when Roxas got home, he managed to get online and saw Sora online. As he was about to message his closet friend, Sora signed out, having noticed Roxas had come online. Clearly, the brunette was still horribly sore. That night, thankfully, Roxas didn't have another dream/memory. He managed to forget about the ones he had had before during the weekend as he finished his homework and practiced his presentation. Amazingly, nothing horrible or spectacular happened, making the weekend dull once Roxas returned home. Well, school had been canceled for Monday, so the blond teenager got to sleep till noon that day and had a lovely day of sitting around the house, drinking hot chocolate with his parents. It was an overall quiet day. However, things were going to get exciting again once Roxas went back to school, though exciting may be the wrong word for it...

* * *

Roxas walked into the Art History room, the vile green folder in his hand. Aeris leaned against the blank white wall next to the door, arms crossed and smiling.

"Had a good weekend, Roxas?" she asked, following the teen with her green eyes. Roxas nodded as he put the folder into the inbox on the desk. "Oh, greet, first people done. Hope you did a good job." Her attention was forced away, thankfully, because Axel had walked in, his own folder in his hands and a large cardboard presentation thing. [[sorry I didn't know what this thing is called. I've used them but I have NO idea what they're called. they're those cardboard things that have two folds and can stand up... Aeris took the board and put it to the side as Axel placed the folder into the same box, going to his seat. He gave Roxas a slight smile, reassurance for a decent grade at least. Roxas gave a weak one in return. Aeris noticed, of course, and simply smiled to herself. She had succeeded to some extent and it was plain to see that the two of them could easily work together and get the job done quickly. And they didn't have to kill each other to do so. The woman moved to the inbox and put the two folders into her bag, knowing well enough that no one else had finished the whole project over the weekend. It was actually due that Friday, but usually people were lazy so close to the holidays. Aeris sighed as the class slowly began to fill and she soon had to begin the class. At least good things were happening.

"All right, let's quiet down. Shocking as it may seem to some of you, we do have a pair of students who actually finished the project for today instead of Friday like I know most of you are planning to do." Some people shifted uncomfortably in their chairs at her broad accusations. "So, seeing as they had the well being to finish this three day weekend instead of enjoying the wondrous blizzard day they're going to present today AND be graded less strictly than any of you probably will. Axel? Roxas? Come up and present, please." As the two of them stood, Aeris went to the board and took it to the front, putting it up on the table that stood in front of her desk. Roxas stood to one side as Axel stood to another. "Okay, boys, please begin..." Aeris sat down in a chair to the side, her clipboard out and pen at the ready.

* * *

Roxas entered the half full locker room, aware that he was a little bit late to get changed. He had been talking to Leon about his grade and was pleased to say he hadn't been failing. That was always good news. Though the bad news was that he had to change about three times faster than usual since the next passing period was going to start soon. As always, Roxas went to his locker at the back of the room, and began to change out of his sweater and shirt after removing his gym pants and putting on his jeans. As he unceremoniously jammed the sweaty clothes into the small locker, he felt a hand clasp unto his wrist and footsteps. The blond looked at the one holding his hand and received a slight shock; Tidus was standing before him, his face strangely empty but his eyes filled with suppressed rage. Goosebumps ran down his back as a cold breeze from the air vent over his head blew at him. "What do you want, Tidus?" He tried to shake off the hand but it had tightened.

"I heard about what you did a few weeks ago, when I saw you outside that alley?" Tidus was trying to hold in his anger. He knew about how Roxas had lied. Seifer probably figured out that there had been no cop car coming. He must have told Tidus and the jock was here to get the truth one way or another.

"Oh, well, good job," Roxas said sarcastically, knowing fully well now wasn't the time to be a wise ass. But what could Tidus do? Honestly? There were people still in the locker room. "Took you a while, but good job. I never knew jocks could be as smart as you are right now." Roxas looked over Tidus's shoulder, his face falling. The locker room was totally empty except for them. And then he heard the door open. His face fell further; it was Seifer. He was so screwed now.

"Ah, well, I never did like your cocky 'tude, Reigen. And that stunt you pulled ain't helping my image of you." Seifer grabbed Roxas' other hand, slamming the teen hard against the lockers. Roxas winced as he felt his bare back connect with the cold metal. "So I'm here to help out Tidus and get me some pay back. I never did finish my job on that redhead. Maybe I'll go take him out after I'm done with you." Seifer snickered as Tidus held down the arm he had been holding. The hat wearing bully nodded menacingly to Tidus. Both teens' hands turned to fists and Roxas felt fear flutter in his heart. This was not going to end well and he just had to have shot his mouth off. Might as well add more to the fire now.

"Tidus, I never knew you were so buddy buddy with the school's most violent bastard. Guess you're about as a weak as a glass bowl, aren't you?" He didn't know what insulted the jock more, being called weak or being compared to a glass bowl, but Roxas knew that it was Tidus that landed the first punch. The fist connected in his abdomen, knocking the air out of the teen. He slid a little down the lockers, resisting the urge to suddenly cough.

"Heh, good boy, Tidus." Seifer was better at holding in his rage than Tidus, but he knew when to use it. And boy did he use it. Roxas merely tried not to show his pain as the punches rained down on him. Seifer hit his face first, and then started hitting his stomach and Tidus just repeatedly hit the spot he had at first. Roxas suddenly gave a cough, tasting the metallic tang of blood on his tongue. He could feel the salty tears about to spill over his eyes from all the pain. Roxas wanted this to end, by any means necessary. He just wanted the feeling to go away. Maybe he should just slip away? Roxas groaned as he shot his head up at the fresh wave of pain Seifer's fist had caused and saw something. He was seeing red. No... Axel!

The redhead pulled about Seifer and punched the guy square in the jaw, making the bully go flying into the wall. Seifer crouched, wiping away the blood from his cut lip. Axel ignored him as he pulled Tidus off of Roxas' other hand, grabbed his collar, and slammed the jock against the locker next to Roxas. Meanwhile, Roxas had slid down the lockers and sat in a crouch, his hands to his belly. Tears ran down his cheek as he silently clutched his bruised abdomen.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Tidus roared into Axel's furious face. "Let go of me, you bastard!" Axel obliged by throwing Tidus to the ground to the side of the lockers. The jock scrambled to get up, his side smarting from contact with the floor. "Gah, you're lucky I need to get to class. Buddy buddy indeed, Roxas. Look who's buddy buddy with whom." Seifer managed to get up and sneak past Axel as he had been confronting Tidus. Tidus and Seifer walked out of the locker room, looking absolutely pissed off. Axel sighed as he ran his hand through the hair at the back of his neck. He turned to see Roxas still in the crouch. The redhead sat on the bench, right in front of the blond teen, his legs spread to the sides as he put his elbows on his thighs and leaned on his hands.

"You alright?" Roxas didn't move, his face still down. Axel reached out a hand and placed it on the blonde's shoulder. "Hey... Roxas? You alright?" The blond looked up, making Axel's eyes widen. Roxas was crying and Axel didn't know what to do. Guys stopped crying long before entering high school so he had no idea what he was supposed to do. Of course, he really didn't have to. Roxas did it all for him. Roxas suddenly jutted forward, on his knees. His hands wrapped around Axel's middle and he buried his face into the black material of the redhead's sweater, silently sobbing. Axel's hands were in the air, a surprised look on his face. The redhead lowered his hands onto Roxas' back before he wrapped his own arms totally around the blond, returning the hug. They seemed to stay like that for so long, but in reality, it was only a few moment. Roxas broke the embrace and sat down on the ground on his legs, his head looking down to the ground. Axel sighed as the blond did so. "Do you want me to go get Leon?"

Roxas shook his head. "No... Can you just help me get to him?" Roxas didn't want to be caught alone right now, not when he felt so insecure. Axel grabbed Roxas' hands and pulled him up, noticing how he hadn't finished changing. The redhead looked at the bench and saw the gray shirt that Roxas had been wearing before. He handed it to the blond, who slipped it on gingerly, his stomach send spasms of pain. Roxas leaned against the locker, eyes shut tight against the pain. Axel pulled the blond away from the lockers and wrapped one hand over Roxas' shoulder and gripped the blond underneath the arm on the other side. His right hand he put in front of the teen so that he could grip it as he walked.

"Lean on me," Axel ordered, feeling Roxas' hand gripping his shirt in the back. He dropped his right arm and began to lead to the door. It was a slower process than regular walking, but it didn't matter. They were late, and that didn't matter either.

"Axel..." Roxas said softly, noticing how short he seemed in comparison to the redhead as Axel looked down. "...Thanks...I... I don't know what I would've done if you hadn't shown up and... and..." Axel scoffed softly in response.

"And rescued you?" Axel smiled as he concentrated on his balance. Roxas gave a weak smile.

"And rescued me," he agreed. He wanted to say something else, something to make things seem lighter. "You know... you're not so bad." Axel gave a laugh as a reply. Roxas' smile increased a little as they exited the locker room through the red door. They saw Leon in his office, looking down at some papers, the top of his head visible.

"Leon!" Axel called out, making the teacher look up. Leon's eyes widened a little as he burst out of his office and confronted the two teens.

"What the hell happened?!" Leon was usually not a swearing teacher, but he had a reason; one of his students had been mauled, or so it appeared.

"Seifer... and Tidus..." Roxas winced a little as he felt a wave of pain. He looked down, unable to continue. Axel tightened his hold on the blond, his free hand going to support Roxas' shoulder.

"Seifer and Tidus were mauling Roxas in the locker room," Axel said plainly. Leon looked appalled beyond reason as he questioned, "Why?" Axel looked down at the top of Roxas' head, feeling the blonde's hand on his right arm. Every time pain hit the shorter teen, Axel could feel the grip tighten and then relax. "Because he helped me in November from Seifer's gang and Tidus. Remember when I hit that homer and you asked me about joining the team in the spring?" Leon nodded, not speaking. "Well, Tidus didn't like it at all it seems and he enlisted Seifer and Raijin to beat me up as a warning. Roxas came and told them a police cruiser was on it's way to patrol the area. They found out he lied." Leon clicked his tongue in disgust.

"Well, they're fucking idiots, and I'll make sure that Laguna talks to them." Laguna may have been Leon's father, but he was still not about to call him 'father'. Being gone for all Leon's life didn't help Laguna's image in his son's eyes. "I promise they'll get severe punishments. Now Roxas, I'll take you to the nurse alright?" Roxas managed to shake his head. "No?" The blonde's grip on Axel tightened, not relaxing this time. Leon noticed. "Oh. I see. Well, we'll both take you. I'm afraid you'll have to go home. I'll make sure your teachers know, alright?" Roxas barely managed to nod this time. Leon helped to take some of Roxas' weight, letting Axel have an easier time.

"Roxas!" Lulu, the dark haired nurse exclaimed, standing up once the three guys entered her office with some difficulty. "Leon... What happened?" Leon proceeded to tell her the story, letting Axel help Roxas onto a chair. The redhead took on next to the blond and let Roxas lean on him. Lulu look of disgust matched the one Leon had before. "Oh that's horrifying. Leon and Axel, can you two help him into the back room? It's empty and I want to check the poor guy over." Leon and Axel helped Roxas into the room and onto the bed, exiting to let Lulu work. Leon left, leaving Axel to sit in a chair and wait. The redhead stared blankly at the posters on the walls, not taking it in. "Axel? Do you want to head back to class?" Axel suddenly stood, hoping for a diagnosis. Lulu looked confused for a moment, and then realized what was up. "Ah, no he's fine. Nothing's wrong with him. He's just got some bad bruises and a cut on his cheek, so he'll be fine. I called his father's office and said he couldn't get away and his mother was also working. They'll pick him up after school. His father is on hold, do you need me to say anything else to him?"

"Yes, can you ask him if it's alright if I come with after school?" Lulu nodded and went to the phone, speaking into it. She gave a nod and put down the phone.

"He said it was fine. Now, let me write you a pass back to class." The woman got a bright blue slip of paper and jutted down the pass and handed it to the redhead. Axel gingerly took it, making Lulu laugh. "He'll be fine here. I won't eat him. Now get to class," she demanded, forcing Axel to leave the office and head to his next class.

* * *

Axel returned to the office right after the school bell rang. He entered the office and saw Roxas' father waiting. The man turned and gave Axel a smile. "Axel! Hello. I guess you're riding with us today. Lulu has told us about what you did today for Roxas. Thank you." The man stuck his hand out and Axel gripped it. They shook hands and then dropped them as they heard Roxas walking stiffly towards him, followed by Lulu.

"I gave him some pain pills, but he's obviously not going to return to school tomorrow. I suggest a day of rest for the poor guy. If he feels up to moving around, he should but he should take it easy. Axel will get him his assignments tomorrow, so everything should be fine." Mr. Reigen nodded, gripping Roxas' shoulder. "Feel better, Roxas." The blond teen gave a weak smile in farewell as the trio left the office and headed to the front doors.

Roxas leaned against Axel as they waited for the car to pull up to the semi-circle drive. As the tires skidded to a stop, Axel helped the blond into back and he himself slipped inside beside him. Roxas still leaned against the redhead, eyes closed. Axel clasped his hands in his lap tightly, gazing out the window. "Axel, once we get our street, you can go home. I'll take care of Roxas." Axel nodded, eyes shifting to Roxas. Mr. Reigen glanced at his rearview mirror and saw the look that crossed the redhead's face and smiled as he returned his attention to the road.

As the car stopped in the Reigens' shoveled out drive, Axel pushed open the door and as he was about to get out of the car, he felt his left hand being squeezed gently. He looked back, noticing Roxas looking at him. The red headed teen gave a curious look as Roxas smiled, "Thanks for today... Axel." The redhead sighed softly, feeling his hand slip out of Roxas' grasp. The blond gingerly got out of the car, his hand on the back for support as Axel closed the door. Mr. Reigen came and took over, thanking Axel for all the help he'd provided that day. Axel waved them good bye as he made his way down the drive and back home.

Roxas was led up the stairs in the garage to the kitchen and then upstairs, where he was left on his own to change and lay down and watch his television set. The blond sat on his bed, fully changed into home clothes, staring at the turned on TV. Something had changed today. Something had changed for the better. Roxas knew what, too. He now saw Axel in a whole different light.


	11. Conversations

**Disclaimer:** I do not own KH. If I did, then I would've made a game with more yaoi action :P

**Pairings: **Akuroku, RikuSora

**Author's Notes:** I'm so tired. I hate high school. Someone kill it please? It's been killing me all week. I feel so dead. –sigh- What can I do, right? Well, enjoy this weak filler ;)

* * *

Roxas breathed heavily, staring at his hands. How could this have happened, he wondered. He wasn't supposed to have been so relieved that Axel showed up. He was supposed to feel nothing that related to thankfulness! He was supposed to hate Axel for the way he acted and thought! But... he didn't. He just couldn't bring himself to do that. It was hard and he didn't know why. Something inside told them that it wasn't meant to be that way. Something, deep down, told him not to force Axel away. Why was it talking to him like that? And what was so spectacular about the redhead? It wasn't like he was a messiah; he wasn't going to lead Roxas to the Promised Land or anything else to that extent.

Another thing bothered the teen; the memories. They weren't his. They were, but they seemed like that weren't really his. It was like looking at another's life and watching it go by, feeling all the pain of the person. Roxas was invading the life of a person who had his name and face. Was it fair of him, to view things he had done in another life? Who knew? Yet, those glimpses of a past life and different world were so interesting that Roxas couldn't help himself. All in all, he seemed so happy in those fragments. It seemed like happiness had been such a long time ago for the guy now. High school wasn't a walk in the park; it was a walk down the stairs to hell. He was always so close to depression that it didn't seem fair. He had the things he wanted and the things he needed, and still he wasn't as happy as he wanted to be. For the first time, Roxas had actually been able to smile warmly and his answer came with Axel, it seemed. Maybe things would get better. Maybe they'd get worse. Again, who knew?

Roxas sighed gingerly getting up, ignoring his body's complaints. He should be in bed, but since when did teenagers listen? The blond sat down with a grimace, trying hard to ignore the pain. Maybe he could get himself another pain pill, but that would require going down the stairs. If he attempted that, he'd probably pass out on the damn steps and just lie there until his dad came. That didn't sound all too nice. So, to try and get his mind off the annoying throbbing, Roxas booted up his computer, making sure that the sound was all the way down so that his parents wouldn't hear the start-up beep.

Then the phone suddenly rang, not the cell, but the house phone. Roxas let it ring, not ready to repeat the last time he had picked up the phone. He didn't want to listen to Sora right now; he was still pretty damn frosty with the guy. No one could blame him though; guys have to have their pride after all. After a few loud and obnoxious rings, the phone stopped and the woman downstairs answered, her voice muffled by floor and door. Then, her voice called out shrilly up the stairs. "Pick up the phone, Roxas!" So much for letting the poor kid rest. Roxas picked up the phone and placed the receiver to his ear.

"Hello?" he asked into the phone, uncertain as to who decided to call him.

"Roxas!" A familiar, yet strangely changed, voice said, which didn't answer the question that Roxas had. Who was calling him?

"Yeah... that's my name. Who is this?" There was some edge to his voice as his belly spasmed again, forcing him to wince as he spoke. The person on the other end sighed, clearly thinking their voice was recognizable.

"Roxas... I'd have thought you would recognize my voice. Seeing as you're currently handicapped, I'll be nice and tell you." Roxas tapped a pencil against the desk impatiently. Clearly this was taking too long for a damn name. "It's Axel." Roxas ceased his drumming and replied with a soft 'oh'.

"Right... Sorry. I must have hit my head or something..," the blond joked, chuckling in a guilty manner. Poor Axel; Roxas couldn't even figure out it was him on the phone.

"No, I think you were dropped on your head as a child," Axel responded, laughing.

"Hey!" Roxas didn't take kindly to that; once his baby sitter picked him up and was carrying him up the stairs and then the girl tripped and Roxas flew out of her arms and hit the wall right on his noggin. Of course, Roxas never told his parents that. What sane three year old was going to say that? Well, actually, Roxas had told his parents that he had hit his head, but they had merely assumed he had bumped it against a table or something. After all, three year olds have an easy time hitting things with their various body parts. "Passing over being dropped on my head, what did you call me about?" It was odd since it had been barely half an hour since the two had parted.

"Yeaaaaaaaah. You think whatever you want to think." Axel was stalling, it was obvious. It seemed that the redhead did this often. Was he so afraid of revealing things about himself? It seemed to be so, since he didn't like being to the point.

"Just spit it out already."

"Fine. I was thinking about treating you to a movie as a celebration of your ravaged body being healed." Axel sounded so casual about it. He was good. Very good. Roxas didn't say anything, letting the silence drag on a little bit. Was he being asked out on a date?! No! Not that. He shook his head a little, trying to convince himself that this was more of a pity thing than anything else. "Roxas?"

"Yeah. Sorry. I spaced out a little."

"Why, cus of you getting dropped on th-"

"Just drop it already!" Roxas whined, exasperated at the way that Axel was talking to him. Admittedly, it was similar to the way that Roxas talked with Sora. Such strange thoughts.

"Yeah, alrighty," complied the redhead, smirking into his phone. "How are you feeling?" There was sincere concern in that tone. Roxas was a bit surprised, even.

"I'm fine. Sore, but you know." Roxas shrugged, forgetting that he wasn't talking to Axel face-to-face. "I've seen better days." No kidding.

"Heh. I should probably go so you can rest your little damaged head. Feel better!"

"Wait!" Roxas called out, before Axel could hang up.

"Hmm?"

"What time is the movie?" Roxas asked, his computer all ready to be used.

"Whoops, my bad. It's on Saturday at..." A few clicking noises ensued on the other end. "Five. Is that alright?"

"Probably." Roxas laughed, bringing up the page that Axel was probably looking at. "I'll ask, but I'll probably be able to go." The blond smiled at the screen as he found out the movie was going to be a comedy.

"Great. I'll see you on Thursday then. Friday if you're smart." Now Roxas was confused. Why would he be gone on Thursday too?

"What...?"

Laughter came from the other end. "Oh man, you're serious? You should use this to your advantage! Take an extra day off!" Axel explained exuberantly. Of course! Why not? Only one day of school to bear and only one day of boredom, with most of his classes excused for the homework! Brilliant! Looks like Axel was smarter than he let on.

"Heh. Good idea. I'll try to pull it off. Thanks for the tip. And..-" Roxas paused, watching his screen flash with an instant message from Kairi. Looks like she was ready to bombard her friend with questions. "Thanks again. It means a lot to me that you helped me today."

Axel didn't respond right away, a soft sigh was easily heard. "Hey.. Don't worry about it." His voice was so soft that Roxas didn't know what to say. It seemed so gentle over the phone. Was that possible? "Now, go and rest or you'll worsen your injuries," He commanded. Roxas chuckled.

"Alrighty, mommy. Good night... Axel." Roxas clicked off the phone, gazing at the screen but not registering what any of it said. Such odd feelings. So new, but so familiar.

* * *

Axel woke the next morning the same as he always did. He dressed and ate, following the same routine. But when he went out to leave for school, he glanced over to his neighbor's front door. He expected the blond to run out and start walking, but Axel knew better. The blond was probably asleep; he deserved that rest. Axel sighed, his breath forming a cloud in front of his face. He put his hands in his pockets as he took off down the street, the snow crunching beneath his booted feet.

Passing by the alley, Axel gazed at the wall, remembering the two times he had talked with Roxas. Both days were so vividly different. The first time, Roxas had rescued Axel from Seifer's gang. The second time was when the redhead apologized and things started changing. He kept walking, trying to move on. Roxas wouldn't leave his mind at all. Why was he haunting him? Why was he such a familiar face? It shouldn't have to be that way. He should be able to move on and try to forget him. He couldn't. It was those damned memories again, forcing him to do things he didn't think he'd ever do. Again.

The day went by much like that, with Axel always wondering why the school felt emptier without Roxas. Everywhere that Axel knew Roxas to be, the redhead would look, feeling empty. It was so strange.

Sora seemed unabashed by his best friend's absence. However, everyone else seemed to notice. Everyone also seemed to know the reason for his missing presence. Seifer and Tidus weren't in school; they were suspended indefinitely and seeing therapists. It seemed that some very bad things had happened to Seifer. Tidus was just an ass. Enough said.

No matter what Axel tried to do, he kept thinking about that blond boy across the street. What was going on..?

* * *

**Author's Notes:** I know it's short guys, gomen! I tried my hardest to make it good, but you'll have to be happy with this 'filler' while I work on the next chapter. I promised double posts, and damnit, I'll do it. Promise! 


	12. Beating Hearts

**Pairings** Axel X Roxas, implied Riku X Sora

**Warnings** This chapter will have swearing, slight themes, and overall fluff.

** Rating** PG or PG-13 

** Disclaimer** I do not belong any of the characters in here. I do not claim I do. I can only claim the original teacher, last names, parents, etc.. though they are not my own. If I did own this, I'd have already released the third game.

** Summary** It's on to the next life for the KH group. When a new red haired student suddenly moves to this high school, sparks fly between him and Roxas. Will things get better for the pair?

** Author's Notes** WAAAAAH D: you all have permission to kill me. KILL ME FOR STALLING SO LONG DX I'm so so so so sorry for not posting anything for months!! I couldn't get around to it at all and have been pretty... out of it for a while. I'm so sorry. So Sorry. I'll make this a nice one to make up for my abandonment of you all! But yes, I have thought about this... it's just that I've got a cold so it may be odd and awkward. Also I realized I changed Axel's last name xDD sorry! It's Kasai and that's it. Ochen doesn't sound nice. We'll just say it's his mother's maiden name. Also, if I ever put down what high school this is, I changed it because I can't find it xD Okay! See you at the end of the chapter:3

* * *

Roxas had sat around his room that day, trying hard to get his mind off and away from the subject of Axel. But no matter what he did, that redhead was lodged firmly into his head. He was willing to bang his head against the wall for an hour if it would've helped. However, he knew that it wouldn't. Though really, even if it could help, he wasn't all to keen on adding a concussion to his list of current injuries. As much as he wanted to get Axel out of mind, he'd rather keep his head intact. Living seemed to be a good idea right now. Then again, when was living not a good idea?

Though as he had been thinking quite a lot since he had gotten up that morning, Roxas couldn't get his thoughts around the fact that somehow Axel had showed up even though he was supposed to have gone on to class. How had he known to come into the locker room to save him? How could he possibly have known? Axel couldn't see through walls and he couldn't hear with superhuman powers. There was nothing extraordinary about Axel. Was there?

He had been staring at his phone all day, expecting a call from anyone he knew, despite the fact that most of the people that he wanted to call couldn't; they were all in class! Roxas realized exactly what he had been doing for the past hour; glancing to his cell every other minute, waiting, expecting. He swore at himself in disgust; what exactly was he waiting for? A call that was never going to come? More importantly, he didn't like thinking that he was waiting for a call from the one person he was trying to not think about the most; Axel. That guy was stuck in his head and he didn't seem to want to leave. Not one bit.

No matter how hard he tried, Roxas couldn't forget what it felt like to feel Axel's arm around his shoulders. It was so weird to think of it like that, but he couldn't help but remember that the same had happened long ago, somewhere he didn't know. It was his cursed memories trying to bustle in, confusing him.

"Oh god dammit already! Maybe being dropped on the head really made me this retarded," he said, proceeding to jam his phone underneath his pillow, hoping to block out any desire to stare at it some more. "Damn you Axel. Get outta my head..," he muttered, his angry tone lost to the mindless blank walls. They said nothing, but they listened. Sometimes it was nice to talk to the walls. Leaning his back stiffly against one of the said walls, Roxas gazed blankly at his television screen,

Everything that Roxas had known seemed to be wiped blank from his head, brief shocks of pain distracting his thoughts. He didn't like the fact that he had been saved by Axel, a person he was supposed to hate for being a jerk. Roxas was supposed to want to hit and harass that redhead, but he couldn't bring himself to even force through a single emotion of loathing. He couldn't. He'd be saved by the guy so what could he do? He couldn't possibly hate him at all. But that was really just it, Axel wasn't really a jerk. He was just hiding something. What, though, Roxas didn't want to find out now. He was okay with just knowing that Axel had a reason for being a reclusive person.

This wasn't good at all! Why couldn't he get Axel out of his head?!

Of course, as he was angsting he failed to hear the doorbell ringing throughout the house. How he didn't notice the obnoxious sound, even he couldn't tell later on.

"Hey there, invalid." That cocky tone made Roxas shift his gaze to the person standing in the doorway, snow lightly dusting the red spikes on top of his head as well as his shoulders. Leaning against his leg on the ground was his messenger bag, also slightly coated with white powder. Clearly Axel had walked home today. But why was it so early in the day? It couldn't have been any later than one pm. Wrong. It was almost four thirty.

"A-Axel?" Roxas stuttered, giving a small look of surprise as Axel bent over and opened the flap to his bag and pulling out a blue folder. The blond watched the redhead easily break the distance between them, the folder bouncing off his hips as he walked. Well that was a pretty strange thing to notice, for a straight boy that is. "What're you doing here?"

Axel gave a look of fake hurt. "Oh that's insulting. I'm here bringing the injured his homework for the next two days. That is if the injured person is smart enough to stay home tomorrow." He dropped the folder down next to Roxas' leg, looking around the room idly, searching for a chair. He found it in the form of the computer seat, the swivel chair. He planted himself down on it with a sigh, relaxing after all that walking he did to get home.

"Uh... okay... thanks I guess." Roxas looked down at the folder, unable to look and meet Axel's eyes for some reason. After all that thinking he had done, he couldn't bring himself to do even that. Strange. The silence slowly began to drag on, the tension slowly filling the air unnecessarily.

"... Uh... Roxas? You still there or am I sitting in a room with a corpse?" Axel said offhandedly, fiddling with random pencils on Roxas' desk, which was pretty rude to do. But since when had that ever really stopped Axel before? Never, is the answer. "Nice eraser by the way," he added, holding up one of those adorable green erasers with a little frog on it. Essentially, only girls really used those erasers. Another reason to laugh at Roxas.

"Thanks...?" Roxas finally looked up, raising an eyebrow at the redhead. "And I don't like being compared to a dead body, thank you very much." This time, Axel gave a slight laugh and Roxas couldn't help but grin lightly.

"Honestly... you're strange. No but anyway, besides my messenger services courtesy of Garden High, free of charge for the common beaten up teenager at home, I came to see how you were doin'. It's not everyday you get beat up in the locker room. Is it?" It was Axel's turn to raise one of his abnormally thin and small eyebrows, his forehead furrowing slightly. Roxas merely rolled his eyes in response.

"No, I don't usually feel the rage of the Disciplinary Committee's head gorilla. I got beat up cus you had to go mouth off to Tidus, the biggest prick in the district." Axel looked away a little, guilt ridden from that little response.

"... Sorry. You could've stayed uninvolved, you know. You coulda let me get my ass handed to me in an alley," he simply stated, spinning side to side in his chair. "You didn't have to save me. You didn't have to lie for me. If anything, I'd have welcomed a chance to fight some dumbass punks." Roxas crossed his arms, ignoring the pain his ribs gave off from the light pressure.

"You are a dumb ass," the blond said in all seriousness, a frown thickly pasted on his features. This was no ha-ha moment at all. Even Axel looked surprised at the tone that phrase was uttered with, not to mention the look on the other teen's face. "You really are an idiot if you think that. No decent human being would leave another to be mobbed! Sure it got me to this, mangled up in a fucking locker room, but if it wasn't going to be me, it would've been you. And the way you reacted when you walked in to them practically trying to beat me into a new paint for the floor, I would think you'd have gone and done something stupid to force your revenge on them and then where would you be? Suspended or expelled!" Roxas was almost roaring at Axel, who merely gapped in surprise. his hands clutching the rim of the chair between his legs.

"...I'm sorry though... because of my being a fucking idiot, you got yourself beaten up. I can't help but blame myself." The look on the redhead's face was nothing short of forlorn as he looked down at the floor, his body still in the swivel chair. Roxas stared at the spikes on his head, his surprise mimicking that of Axel's only a moment before.

"Axel... How did you know how to find me...?" Roxas quickly steered the conversation to the one question he wanted answered most. Axel didn't look at it though, appearing to not have heard. "Axel?" the blond uttered softly, wondering why he didn't get an answer.

"Because I thought it was strange that Seifer went into the locker room and you still hadn't come out."

"You... you were waiting for me?"

Axel looked up, just a little. "Yeah." Suddenly the redhead stood up, his face seemingly covered by shadows as he turned towards the door. The suddenness of his motions left Roxas in an awkward silence, confused so very much. Axel leaned over, picking up his bag and swinging it over his shoulder. "I... I'll see you later..." His voice sounded flustered, as though he was embarrassed to have admitted that he had indeed been waiting for Roxas.

"Axel...," Roxas muttered, watching the redhead leave through the doorway, his footsteps in the hall echoing off the walls. Roxas even heard the door slamming behind him as he left. The blond looked down at the thin folder, his assignments for the next two days lying neatly inside.

His heart was pounding. His hand went to his chest, holding it, trying to still the raging beat the muscle produced. Why did it have to react like that? Why?

Why Axel?

* * *

** Author's Notes** yeah I realize it's kinda short. And I also realize that I did take the advice of one of the reviewers ;3 So the next chapter will in fact be the movie theater date. MOST LIKELY. If it isn't, than.. well okay, it's going to be the movie thing hands down. xD See you then! Sorry for the shortness! 


	13. My Heartfelt Lie

**Pairings** Axel X Roxas, implied Riku X Sora

**Warnings** This chapter will have swearing, slight themes, and BL kissing

** Rating** PG or PG-13 

** Disclaimer** I do not belong any of the characters in here. I do not claim I do. I can only claim the original teacher, last names, parents, etc.. though they are not my own. If I did own this, I'd have already released the third game and it'd contain pure fangirl smut.

** Summary** It's on to the next life for the KH group. When a new red haired student suddenly moves to this high school, sparks fly between him and Roxas. Will things get better for the pair?

** Author's Notes** Less than a month, I think. But I got it done, correct? Correct. :3 Now... I worked hard on this, but it might be shoddy and poorly written and rather rushed. I wanted to get it done before I got too lazy, you see ; I'm sorry in advance and happy reading to all of you :3 Lots of love

-Gen

* * *

The next few days seemed to blend together in a mesh of hours and minutes, absently ticking noises and the restorative effects of long sleep. Somehow, the two days, yes two, that Roxas took off of school seemed to set his mind back in order. He wasn't worried about what would come the moment he returned to school or when he saw Sora again. Actually, he was ready to deal with Sora now, and hopefully, after he explained himself, the brunette would admit what a dumb ass he had been. But then again, if wishes were fishes, there wouldn't be any room left in the sea. However, it didn't usually take much for Sora to admit he was wrong and had been acting stupid. Hopefully, just talking to him would make him forgive Roxas. He had to. 

Now, one had to wonder, why he took the extra day off, complying with Axel's suggestion. He was ready to go back to school on that Friday, but what really happened was that the teen's mother herself recommended that Roxas stay home for the remainder of the week so he could be fine for the movie on Saturday. Quite frankly, it was just fine by him. If his mother had nothing to complain about, than why should he? School sucked, period, and the awkward questions could wait until Monday came around the corner.

There would, no doubt in his mind, be many awkward questions, or maybe just the same few repeated countless times. All the teachers would ask if he felt all right or was feeling better. It was the same no matter what. Some might even ask what Roxas could have possibly done to piss of the school's worst characters. He couldn't tell them. That would possibly make things even worse for the blond teenager. If they knew why, they would wonder what was wrong with him.

And it was all Axel's fault. Roxas had defended him and helped him, and then he got beaten up. But maybe it was high time to let go of that and keep going with the flow of things, naturally, instead of trying to steer things his way. He would just have to deal with it all as it came at him.

But the things that were coming at him were going to be hard to deal with.

* * *

"_... Just because you have a next life... it doesn't mean I do too..."_

Roxas woke with a start, his eyes opening as his eyes, which felt slightly damp. Raising his hand to touch the few tears that dared to run down his face from the dream. Another one, another one to bend his mind around; to wonder what it meant to him and who it was. Axel. Again, Axel. It was a recurring sensation, as though it was a major case of deja-vu. All these memories and no way to deal with them. It didn't seem fair. To the blond, it didn't seem that Axel had them, so why should he have them alone?

"Enough!" Roxas practically started himself as he said it out loud, rubbing at his eyes, a deep frown etched both in forehead and lips. This was getting ridiculous. It had to stop now, once and for all! Turning to face the wall, the blond pulled the warm blanket over his shoulders, pulling his legs up slightly to keep in the bodily warmth.

He had been fighting Axel in that dream, and the way that Axel reacted to the loss, well, it hurt. Not the fact that the redhead lost, but more that in the memory, Roxas couldn't remember who Axel really was. There, it felt like he was simply a stranger, an enemy trying to make him remember something he couldn't. And it hurt. It hurt far more than it should have. He had to dismiss it as a dream, but it was hard. Nobodies weren't supposed to have hearts, but he wasn't a nobody.

Roxas had a heart.

Because of his dream, the blond could no longer simply close his eyes and nod off again. It simply wouldn't work this time around. Besides, the weak winter light was streaming past his slightly mangled blinds (the result of throwing a basket ball inside his room that summer. His parents refused to replace it for him). Grumbling, he had to admit defeat. Besides, now he had to look forward to the afternoon; the movie.

The movie.

Oh god, the movie.

He had promised Axel he would see that movie at five that afternoon. It was currently ten thirty in the morning. He had about six and a half hours to ponder what he would do on that occasion, spending approximately an hour and half with the one person who was refusing to get out of his head. It shouldn't be this hard to think about. All Roxas had to do was act normal. Since that's what he was, normal. Right? Of course he was, he assured himself. There was nothing wrong with his head, or what he was thinking. It was all because of what happened to him. Or so he convinced himself. That was his alibi now, for acting weird and thinking oddly. The only thing wrong with it was the fact that he felt compelled to give himself an alibi. People would begin to think strange things if they knew. So it was better to cover these things up and trap them in a web, to keep them there.

Roxas grumbled lightly again, shifting himself so that he could sit up on his bed, his small shoulders bare, free from the blanket's warm hold. Normal feeling had returned to his eyes as he pulled the blanket over his legs and swung them over the edge of the bed, firmly planted on the ground. Now he had several hours to kill. Several, not a few, several.

Naturally, he turned to the computer. It was the only thing he could really use to waste time; just surfing around on the internet, chatting with the early risers who happened to be on. Why they would want to be up this early was beyond him. It just seemed to abnormal to waste a Saturday morning with things that weren't sleeping. The early risers would argue back until both of them would just stop giving a damn.

The moment that Roxas signed on to his messenger service, the mouse clicking with every passing second. Sora was on, which was really surprisng. Sora was NEVER on this early. Never. Sora was the one who got the notion of sleeping in jammed into Roxas' head. So why was he on? He glanced down his list, Namine's away message read 'art class' and Riku's read 'on the phone'. On the phone? With whom?

**absolutelywrong90: Roxas.**

Said teenager almost jumped, looking at the flashing window for a moment before registering that it was Sora.

**rockoutloud32: Hey**

**absolutelywrong90: Hey. Look.. I'm sorry about being a piece of shit before. I shoulda been there for you instead of being a complete asshole.**

**rockoutloud32: Don't worry about it.**

**absolutelywrong90: No, serously, I'm sorry.**

**rockoutloud32: And I said don't worry about it so stfu xD**

**absolutelywrong90: ... okay. Fine. P**

**absolutelywrong90: Anyway, I was thinking about going to see a movie today? Wanna come along? Namine and Riku are coming too. I think Kairi might if she can convince her parents to let her ditch some stupid family friend dinner.**

**rockoutloud32: ...**

Tonight? Roxas was torn between his best friend and close friends and a promise to a guy who saved his sorry ass. Sora had to understand that the blond couldn't simply break a promise. But...he might simply fly off the handle again, not speaking to him once more. He couldn't tell Sora; he couldn't handle being ignored again. Fingers poised over the keyboard, Roxas thought for a moment.

**absolutelywrong90: Roxy? You there?**

**absolutelywrong90: ROXAS?**

**rockoutloud32: Oh sorry!!!! ;; I kinda lost it there for a moment. Surfing, you know. the usual.**

**absolutelywrong90: ahah.. lol... dummy**

**rockoutloud32: ..but...**

**rockoutloud32: ...**

**absolutelywrong90: ... ?? D**

**rockoutloud32: I can't go. My mom's.. paranoid. She wants me to relax this weekend. Sorry. )**

**absolutelywrong90: Hey no prob. I getcha. Moms. lol**

**rockoutloud32: lol**

**absolutelywrong90!!**

**rockoutloud32?! what?**

**absolutelywrong90: the phone. brb**

**rockoutloud32:... is it Riku?**

**absolutelywrong90: ... how'd you know? OO**

**rockoutloud32: look at his away message dumbass**

**absolutelywrong90: ... oh... still.. brb ;; I want to talk to him.**

**rockoutloud32: lol... hehehehe**

**absolutelywrong90: Hey! get your mind outta the damn gutter.**

**absolutelywrong90: it's not what you're thinking**

**rockoutloud32: I wasn't before. But now I am**

**rockoutloud32: lmao**

**absolutelywrong90: ... stfu already. I'll talk to you later.**

**rockoutloud32: lol, alrighty. See you.**

Roxas closed the window, returning to scanning the world wide web, pausing a bit to look through Namine's art gallery. What bothered him right now was that the clock kept ticking, and still Sora didn't return to their conversation. In fact, both he and Riku were now idle. What the hell? What could they possibly have to talk about for so long? They were meeting each other tonight. Weird. Shaking his head, Roxas put up his own message. However, he wouldn't be able to escape the online world so easily.

**FlurryofDancingFlames: Roxas?**

**rockoutloud32: automatic response - [I am away from my computer at the moment**

**FlurryofDancingFlames: ... okay nvm then**

**rockoutloud32: No I'm here.**

**rockoutloud32: who is this?**

**The name wasn't familiar. Stranger still, somewhere in the back of his mind, it was. Weird.**

**FlurryofDancingFlames: Roxy :3**

**rockoutloud32: That's my name, I'm afraid.**

**FlurryofDancingFlames: Lol xD Ten guesses, dropped-on-his-head-as-a-baby Roxas.**

**FlurryofDancingFlames: ;3**

**rockoutloud32!!!**

**rockoutloud32: Axel?! How the hell'd you get my screen name?! Stalker much!?**

**FlurryofDancingFlames: Don't be that way. Some girl in art history gave me it I dunno why...**

**rockoutloud32: Ugh.. .. what do you want?**

**FlurryofDancingFlames: Is that how you talk to people online? For shame.**

**FlurryofDancingFlames: Lol**

**rockoutloud32: are you here to lecture me P**

**FlurryofDancingFlames: Of course not. Just to remind you I'll come get you at four forty. All right?**

**rockoutloud32: ... what?**

**FlurryofDancingFlames: -slap-**

**FlurryofDancingFlames: movie. Hello?**

**rockoutloud32: ... lol right ;;**

**rockoutloud32: look I gotta go. Just knock on the door later or something P**

**FlurryofDancingFlames: O okay dokay, Roxy.**

**rockoutloud32: and don't call me that again.**

**FlurryofDancingFlames: ... fine**

**FlurryofDancingFlames: Roxy**

Infuriated, Roxas got up, leaving the computer screen on. That conversation was just too weird. It was... so informal. Abnormally informal. Now all Roxas could do was wait. Waiting. It's like that's all he ever did.

* * *

Ding dong. Roxas was ready for that sound to echo through the house. Getting up from the couch, leaving his father to watch television alone, the blond made his way to the entry hall, his socked feet muffling the sound of movement. Pulling open the door, Axel stood with a black coat on, and a scarf, wrapped tightly around his neck. A cocky grin adorned his facial features as Roxas moved to the side to let him in.

"Alright. Let's get going," Axel said simply, jamming his hands into the coat pockets.

Rolling his eyes, the blond simply ignored the comment as he opened the closet. He pulled out his tan winter jacket, which had square patterns randomly placed on the sleeves and across the chest. As he put it on he was very conscientious of Axel's gaze linger on him. Growling at himself mentally, Roxas tried hard to ignore that as he had ignored the comment.

Roxas mother suddenly entered the hall, wiping her hands on a kitchen towel. "I know this is ridiculously motherly of me, but be back before midnight. I don't want to have to chase you across town." The man in the living room chuckled a little after scoffing at that comment. Clearly that meant that it would be he who would do the chasing.

"Like I'm going to be out that long. Why would I?" Roxas looked slightly flustered at that, wondering what his mother thought. "Geez, Mom... I'm just going to the movies..." He looked away, zipping up his coat as he finally felt Axel stop looking at him.

"I'm just setting some ground rules. I'll see you later, honey. Have fun." She smiled before the door closed behind the pair. A car stood in the driveway: Axel's father's car.

As they got into the warm interior, Roxas kept his hands and legs together, firmly as he looked at the dashboard, rather determinedly. Axel laughed a little as he started the car. "You look like I'm kidnapping you. Lighten up already." Roxas looked at the redhead, who was smirking at him. "I'm not going to bite, god.."

Sighing and rolling his eyes once more, the blond stuck his tongue at the redhead. "I'm more afraid of the glove compartment eating me alive." He matched Axel's smirk as the car pulled out of the driveway and down the snowy road.

* * *

The movie was funny, oh sure, but it was hard to watch with Axel sitting next to him, his elbow practically jamming the blond's away. They were exchanging nudges, vying for position on the arm rest. A silent war. Roxas gave up, forfeiting as he refused to keep letting Axel touch him like that. It was... and odd sensation.

They had no popcorn, only sodas. One would think they'd have popcorn to keep them warm, but the mass of people in the theater made it pretty damn hot.

Roxas couldn't wait till it was over and he could go home to try to kill himself with his fluffy pillow. It felt like it was getting steadily and steadily warmer on the side that Axel sat on, and that wasn't a good sign on any account. Either he was going to pass out from the heat, or something far worse was going on._ 'Make it stop. Someone... make it stop.' _

Acting wasn't hard, all he had to do was laugh at the right moments and Axel was none the wiser. Even he laughed at the right moments. Roxas didn't know he was acting too.

* * *

All good things must come to an end. This, while not a good thing, ended too. Emerging out of the theater in a horde of people, far at the back of them. They talked idly of the movie, what they thought of the actor, the usual thing. It had been a fine movie, but it would've been better if Roxas had seen it with someone else, like Sora and his other friends. This had been so very awkward.

The sounds of their footsteps sounded wet, the snow slushing beneath them. "Roxas... can I talk to you about something?" Axel stopped Roxas at the car, on the passenger side. The keys were in his hands, but he hadn't pressed the unlock button yet. The blond had been about to open the door to the black vehicle, but he turned around, leaning against it to listen. Axel seemed kind of troubled. About what, though, was a mystery.

"Sure, why not? Make it quick. It's fucking cold out." Roxas crossed his arms to keep the body heat inside the coat, not really liking this weather too much. He wished he had brought himself a hat or a scarf, like Axel had been smart enough to do.

"... You're okay, right?" Axel looked at him intently, curious, his gaze was searching for some reason. The question caught the blond off guard though. It seemed so misplaced in right now. They had just emerged from the movies, and he suddenly asks this? What was he playing at?

"...O-okay? About what?" He was beginning to get really confused. It just seemed so odd.

"About the whole fact that I sorta saved you and... and...," the redhead paused there, a silence ensuing that was only broken by cars and the occasional passerby. "...and that I had been waiting for you." Color had been steadily filling both their faces from the cold winds, which whipped at their faces. Roxas' went up another shade, out of embarrassment. He hadn't really thought about that fact for a while, having skipped over it save himself hours of thought to reach a dead end and a large headache.

"... I... I don't see why I shouldn't be...," that was all Roxas could say with a straight face. This conversation was just getting to be so strange. Why was it that Axel made things strange.

"Good... good. But you feel better, right? Rested and stuff like that?"

Roxas raised an eyebrow, thinking this was a conversation that could be had in the car. The i warm /i car. "Uh... I wouldn't be here if I wa-" He stopped, his lips found immovable since something was blocking their motion. Axel had moved forward so fast the blond had no time to react; he had suddenly been kissed by the redhead. But as sudden as it was, as alarming as it was, Roxas raised no objection. He, for some reason, found no objections to this. He just let Axel kiss him like that, in the cold night. His eyes were closed as his hand went up to grip at Axel's coat a little with the redhead's hands holding the car for support.

"Roxas?!"

It was Sora.

* * *

**A/N:** !!! The drama:3 sorry for the cliff hanger. Gotta keep you wanting more, after all. 


	14. Hate me, Kiss me

**Pairings** Axel X Roxas, implied Riku X Sora

**Warnings** This chapter will have swearing, slight themes, and boys kissing and making out.

**Rating** PG or PG-13

**Disclaimer** I do not belong any of the characters in here. I do not claim I do. I can only claim the original teacher, last names, parents, etc.. though they are not my own. If I did own this, I'd have already released the third game and it'd contain pure fangirl smut.

**Summary** It's on to the next life for the KH group. When a new red haired student suddenly moves to this high school, sparks fly between him and Roxas. Will things get better for the pair?

**Author's Notes: **FORGIVE MEI have finals right now so this is gonna be ... well I can't say, I haven't really written it just yet. Lucky for you, THERE IS STUFF UNDER THIS. Yeah, I'll say you're damn lucky. xD Now, on to the story, ne? Also,I do realize just how out of character Sora is... I don't care, sorry, but I hate Sora xD He's an idiot who was trusted to save the universe. How'd he win? Dumb. Luck. :P sorry. Don't hate me for my opinion.

**Music Listened to During:** Tri-Angle (DBSK and BoA), The World is Mine (David Guetta), Do You Want To (Franz Ferdinand), Lonely in Gorgeous ( Not sure, in Paradise Kiss), Eyes on Me (Faye Wong), Life is like a Boat (Rie Fu), Duvet (BoA), Kingdom Hearts Piano Medley 1 and 2 (Sebastian Wolff), Kiss me Goodbye (Angela Aki), Date Rape (Sublime), Defying Gravity (Wicked OS)

* * *

"Roxas?!" 

The sounds seemed to be muffled as the blood rushed to the blond teenager's ears, flooding his vision and coloring his face pink. His head turned to face the being that emitted his name in cold fury, or rather, that was what it sounded like, almost crystal clear. Hidden in that single name was something very close to down right shock, covered up by a darker mask. Was it just him, or did Roxas detect a hint of hurt? That confused him almost as much as the fact that he hadn't fought off the kiss that had just started something bigger than should be.

Axel's arms fell to his sides as his head turned to look at Sora, which only made the blond suddenly look up at him, noticing an equally disturbing look of anger lingering that. Axel had no reason to be angry at Sora at that moment, unless he had noticed something that that brunette's own best friend failed to acknowledge. Diverting his attention back to Sora, Roxas finally noticed Riku, Kairi, and Namine standing slightly behind the brunette, Riku being a bit closer to the other male than the females.

"...Sora?" the blond croaked out, surprising himself at the quality of his voice at that moment, which seemed to be highly lacking. He almost pushed out a question, but somehow the towering redhead managed to beat him to it, his eyes looking none too friendly at that moment. Before, they seemed far more tender while now it was like looking at a man who could one day murder without a saddened glance.

"What the hell do you want?" Axel growled out, surprising Sora slightly, whose face fell slightly before regaining it's angry luster. Red dotted his face from the cold wind that seemed to be upset at being ignored. The three behind the brunette said nothing as they watched, Namine's face giving away her want to step in and stop things right now. Kairi seemed just the same as the female blond, forcing herself to stay back. Riku, however, was as passive as always with his facial features unreadable as Sora's was readable. His hands were jutting into his pockets, black scarf covering up his mouth and flickering slightly in the wind behind him.

Livid, Sora glared at the redhead, hoping to stare him down into submission but it seemed to fail miserable as Axel did nothing but return the look with a fierce one of his own. "Shut your fucking mouth. I wasn't talking to you!" Shifting his embarrassment away from Axel, Sora took a step forward, only one. He looked hard at Roxas, who flinched back slightly, knowing the brunette was going to yell at him. He couldn't figure out what he did wrong though. "Roxas... you told me you could go because your mom asked you to stay! You didn't say anything about having plans with this joker! You said, you said that... you said..." He stopped, making an exaggerated motion with his hands as he scoffed angrily. "That was total bullshit wasn't it, Roxas? Wasn't it!?" He looked hard at Roxas, who couldn't seem to find his voice to answer the accusations, accurate as they were.

"So what if he didn't tell you the truth? Is that a crime?" Axel looked down at the shorter male, smirking at him, mocking him even. "I don't think tha-" He looked down suddenly, noticing the hand that had tugged at his coat rather sharply. Roxas face was in shadows as he looked down at the ground, his appendage clutching at the dark coat.

"Don't... it's not your fight..," muttered the blond, his lips moving slightly. Then, as the redhead was about to grasp at his hand, Roxas dropped it, stepping away from the car and toward Sora, looking at him hard. "What do you want me to do, Sora? Say I'm sorry and that it won't happen again like some little boy? I know you well enough that something else is totally bugging you so spit it out already. Stop wasting my time!" Sora stopped glaring, gazing off to the side a little. Roxas knew he had hit the nail on the head. Now all he had to do was to drive it further in. "Well? Would you rather I take a guess? How about... you're just upset because I would rather keep a promise to a person you don't like and in order to spare your feelings, I went and lied to you about it. Is that what's bugging you? Is that it?" Sora shook his head lightly.

Behind him, Kairi and Namine looked on, sullenly, though they no longer sought to intervene. Riku, however actually gave a worried look, his scarf having slipped down past his mouth. "..Sora..." He moved forward, placing a hand gently on the brunette's shoulder, but Sora didn't accept it, shaking it off.

"Roxas, I would've been a bit peeved, sure, but you shoulda told me at least. You're supposed to be my best friend, but you can't even talk to me about anything like this anymore, can you? Why won't you trust me?!" Sora said, his voice cracking at the end a bit as his eyes filled with hurt. Kairi bit her lip as Namine clutched her hands to her chest in worry. "Why could you come to talk to me about it?"

Roxas stood there, looking at Sora, who seemed to be hurt, but Roxas had his reason for not going to the brunette for help. He knew already what would have been said and what would've resulted from it. He knew Sora better than that. That's why he couldn't help but let out a secret even he himself shouldn't have known.

"What, so you can go tell Riku as you two screw around when your parents aren't home?" Roxas didn't show a hint of remorse as Sora's face fell to a horrified expression. Even the cloud of vapor in front of his lips seemed colder than before. It was half shock and half confusion. Riku, normally so calm and expressionless, actually gave a fierce look at Roxas. No one would've known this but his hands were clenched pretty damn hard inside his pockets. "Now...what's with that look? Don't tell me I'm right?" Roxas cocked his head, smirking. Axel, who stood quietly and patiently behind the blond snickered, a small laugh escaping his mouth.

"...S-Sora...is he serious?" Kairi voiced quietly from behind them, an almost forgotten figure in this tale. "Riku...he's joking, right?" The redheaded female looked almost desperate for an answer. Namine grabbed her hand as Kairi almost surged forward to get her answer physically. "Answer me, Sora!" Both of their silences seemed to be the answer that she wanted, or rather, didn't. The brunette didn't turn around and the silver haired teen didn't glance back either; both were looking sharply at the two standing before them.

"All those away messages, so ironically well timed, accidentally. Sora, you shoulda done a better job of lying. You had too many projects to do with Riku that it just wasn't school any more, was it? Message, after message said 'Project at Riku's'. It didn't seem to end, did it?" Roxas kept pushing the nail harder and harder, wanting to get back at his best friend for abandoning him when he really needed him. He wasn't going to like the results he'd get from this from all four of them, but he was sick of worrying about what Sora was going to think. For too long had he been a half-shadow, hiding behind Sora to get what friends he had now. He would have never befriend Riku or Kairi had Sora not been there. "How about you tell me why you, 'my best friend' couldn't even tell me about that? Did I ever say I was a homophobe? Why are you even asking me if I trust you if you can't even trust me?"

He knew he had gone overboard, far overboard actually, but he hadn't stopped. Now, victory in his loud tones, he slowly began regretting it. Sora stood their, staring at him with a half-empty look as Kairi kept trying to break free of Namine's hold.

"Do you even know what you're saying?" Finally, Riku spoke up something coherent. His tone was accusatory, aimed directly at Roxas. "Where's your evidence? Got any proof because I do believe you fall a bit short there." Roxas only smirked, causing Riku to give off a questioning glance at Sora, who happened to be looking down, pretty much giving everything away.

"Stop, Riku..," Everyone's attention suddenly shifted to the seemingly meek Sora. "He got us, I can't deny that. But I guess we're all gonna pay the price for that." He looked up at Axel, yes Axel, and suddenly flipped him off, much to everyone's surprise. "It's your fault, you know. If you didn't come here, things coulda been so much better. But you, you fucked things up." He turned around, finding only Riku standing behind him; Kairi and Namine were walking towards the theater, leaving behind the confused guys to stand on their own.

"Idiot._You're_ the one who _fucked_ up. Or... you _fucked _someone and made things like this. Looks like you're just lookin' for a scapegoat. Some friend you are," Axel looked directly at Sora, who didn't make a move to turn around. "Did you do the same to that redhead chick? Is that why she's run off crying because you fed her some stupid lies?" Axel was on a roll, raising his arms up, palms flat and up, giving off the common questioning pose. "How come she seemed so upset when she found out you two do the nasty?"

"Shut up, Axel. You're just another nobody. Just like him."

Riku stretched his hand out and Sora took it, moving forward to get to the car they needed. The silver-haired teen gave a quick glance at them, sighing and shaking his head lightly, before wrapping an arm around Sora's shoulder's leading him away. Axel shook his own head in response, snickering at them. "Nobodies. Who're they trying...to..," he stopped, mid-sentence as he managed to get a clear view of Roxas' face. A few salty drops of liquid dripped off his chin, quickly replaced by a few dangling from his jaw. "R-Roxy?" he said, uncertain. The blond shifted his head to glance up at the redhead, his eyes blurry from the tears building up on his lids.

"W-what did I j-just do?" he stammered, tears running freely down his face. Axel kept looking down at him even as the blond's hands raced up to cover his eyes. "H-how c-could... w-why..." His words were drowned out, halted, by the labored breathing as a few sobs broke past his fingers. Axel frowned, not cruelly, but he didn't exactly look happy. How could such a dumb teenager's words hurt this guy so badly? Moving forward and holding the smaller male in his arms, Axel rested his chin on the blond mess of hair.

"It's okay, it's okay... just calm down." He could feel the blond shaking in his grasp, eyes shut tight as smaller fingers clutched at the coat. In a few moments, the shaking stopped and silence ensued. Roxas' eyes were open, staring at the material in front of his face. He could feel Axel's hand patting his back softly. Everything in front of his nose smelled distinctly like Axel; even the scarf that was tickling his nose slightly smelled like him, pleasant even. This was getting kind of humiliating though, to cry in another guy's arms in the middle of the street. It was alright for a girl to do that, but no way to deny it, Roxas was a guy through and through.

"... You can let go of me now. I'm...okay," Roxas muttered, muffled heavily by the coat. Axel gingerly let go, peeling himself away from the blond, who moved back a few steps and looked down, hiding his red eyes. He couldn't believe what just happened. Suddenly, Sora and Riku weren't going to be part of his circle of friends, and no doubt Kairi would be furious at the blond for the outburst. It seemed only Namine remained to be his friend. Cold hands suddenly gripped his face, forcing him to look up. Deep green eyes looked back at his own, forcing him to look straight ahead rather than away.

"Look, I'm sorry I got you into this mess. I shouldn't have provoked him like that. I'm really sorry." Axel sounded so sincere, friendly even. It really just clicked in the blonde's head; he could always turn to Axel if he needed a friend. Namine was nice, but she was sometimes more cryptic then helpful. "I just... thought I should've helped you somehow...though I guess I didn't do a very good job at it." He moved his eyes in another direction, but his hold on the smaller male's face didn't end. Roxas lifted his own hands to clasp at the ones on his face, fingers slipping around to rest against the redhead's wrists.

"It's...don't worry about it. It isn't your fault. Don't blame yourself. It would've happened in the end, I think." He didn't sound too sure, but he didn't want to drag the redhead into this. Axel, seeing past the ruse, shook his head at that, the spiked up hair sagging a little from the light snow flakes that were now falling on them, all around them. "No, please, don't. It's my fault. I lied to Sora."

"But I'm the one that-"

"No. Stop." Axel looked at Roxas in surprise at the firm tone. "Stop blaming yourself for my being stupid. It's not your fault so get over it already."

"...Just tell me how to make it up to you." Roxas shook his head against the redhead's hands, feeling a pinprick of embarrassed red color dotting his face because of them. He wouldn't let Axel blame himself for this. It wasn't his fault, completely. He just edged on Sora a bit. He wasn't a nobody. He wasn't. "Please, Roxas. Please." Shifting his gaze to look down, Roxas thought about it for a minute.

"Fine," he muttered definitively., sapphire eyes shooting up to stare back at the emerald ones. Axel was ready to listen to what the blond said. Though he certainly wasn't expecting what happened next. "Kiss me." Roxas wanted to see if the same reaction would happen this time around, that funny feeling where memories seemed to be verified, even though they weren't really his memories to verify. Somehow, in those little dream memories, the feelings were hard to tell; it was difficult to feel them there. But these, these seemed to be the delayed feelings that would've been there, some time ago, whenever it was.

"K-kiss you?" He wasn't exactly expecting that kind of way to make it up to Roxas. A quick spot of color flashed into his face, not because of the cold, but because of the thought of being requested to kiss him. "Are..you s-sure about that?"

Roxas only gave a weak smile in response and simply said, "Yep."

Axel let out a shaky sigh, raising the blond's face with a slight movement of his hands. With Roxas' face slightly higher, Axel could see just how tired he must have felt. But he couldn't help but think that the smaller male looked really adorable all blushy like that. Moving his head in to only a few inches from the blond's lips, the redhead stopped, slightly afraid of being reprimanded about it now. Rolling his eyes, Roxas simply thought to himself 'how troublesome' and closed the distance himself. More surprises for the redhead. Slipping his hand around Axel's neck, Roxas pulled him in closer, unintentionally at first, but then he didn't mind it. Easy to say that Axel didn't either. Feeling color flood his face, Roxas shut his eyes tightly, not able to keep on staring straight at the perceptive green eyes. It was like he forgot about Sora for a moment.

* * *

Somehow Axel managed to drive them both home, though they didn't say anything on the way. Roxas had sat in the car, hands clenched in his laps as the awkward silence dragged on between them. The tension in the car's atmosphere was rather heavy, like pea soup, not the bad liquid kind that one finds in a prison either. Neither one of them said anything about what happened nor did they attempt to start up a totally different conversation. It just didn't feel right. Roxas just wanted to get home and go to sleep for hours with no end in sight. 

"Look, if you want to talk to me later just call, alright?" Roxas almost jumped at the sudden words that pierced the silent air. He glanced at Axel, who was simply looking forward. Unable to not notice the redhead's knuckles were turning white from gripping the wheel so tightly, Roxas simply gave an uncertainly look before giving off an agreeing sound from the back of his throat. He returned his gaze to the road before them, seeing the familiar street signs on the sidewalks. No one was out; who would be at this hour on such a cold night?

Once the car was safely stalling on the pavement, Axel finally turned to look at Roxas, who now wasn't willing to look at him. "I'm sorry about tonight..." The blond shook his head as he fumbled with the door, mumbling 'it's okay' a few times before he managed to get the door open. Stepping out of the car in his driveway, Roxas slammed the door behind him, looking at the car as it backed out of the paved drive and quickly slid into the one across the street. By the time Axel had gotten out of the car after parking it in the garage, he saw that the blond had already gone inside, leaving the redhead to simply get himself indoors.

Roxas climbed the stairs, ignoring his mother's calls and his father's funny look. Both were sitting in the living room, talking to one another during a commercial. They were probably watching some comedy since after a few minutes light laughter rang out from downstairs. The blond didn't want to talk to his parents now, and they could tell by his meek greeting when he stepped into the house. He had hung up his coat in silence, not blabbering on about how it was a good movie or how annoying something was. Roxas just needed some solitude.

He crashed on his bed, gathering up some of the blanket in his fingers, burying his face into the cloth. He could still smell Axel's cologne, which he only realized moments ago was just that. Axel couldn't shave; he just didn't have the genes to really ever grow a beard.

"He smelled...nice...," he said out loud, thinking idly. He hadn't heard the footsteps on the stairs, on the landing, or down the hall. He didn't know his mother had been about to knock on his door with a small plate of cut apples for him to eat. She heard him, but she didn't think twice about it. Biting her lip for a second, she wondered what to do. Finally, after a few moments, she knocked on the door, opening it and stepped in, her feet making a slight scoffing sound as socked feet met floor.

"Hey honey. I brought you some apples if you want them." Roxas looked up from his position in the bed, having twisted to lay down on it properly with his head on his pillow and hands on his chest. The woman smiled, placing the plate on the table next the bed. "I hope that movie was good. You seem kind of out of it. Tired?" she questioned, acting like she was supposed to.

Roxas nodded and answered, "Yeah. It was fine and yeah...I'm just...tired. It was a long one and it's just been kind of a long day." He didn't continue so that simply meant that he was done talking for now. Sighing, his mother nodded, turning around to leave her son's room.

"Well, sleep well. What do you want for breakfast tomorrow? Bacon? Eggs? Waffles?" Roxas shook his head, for once not requesting something from his mother for his Sunday breakfast.

"No... it's fine. I'll just have some cereal or something." Nodding, the woman turned and left the room, closing the door behind her with a click. Roxas heaved a great sigh, hearing it echo back at him through the room, weak and muffled. "... I hate this...," he said to the empty room, referring to his situation with Sora. He didn't want to fight with him, but it looked like it was inevitable. Turning to his side, the blond curled up, pulling his knees closer to his belly as he lay there, not getting up to change. "Why is this so hard... to ... to... gah..." He shut his eyes, forcing half his face into the pillow, trying to shut out his racing brain. He didn't want to think right now. He wanted sleep. He wanted to forget, just for the night.

* * *

The sun peaked through the thin red curtains, landing on the redhead tangled in his own blanket on his bed. The light painted the postured walls, small flares of light everywhere where the the angles of the posters reflected the early sunlight. His floor was a mess, as it usually was. Axel's hand was hanging limply off of the bed's edge, fingers barely scraping the gray carpeted floor. The teenager twisted in his sleep, the blanket slipping down past his shoulders, revealing his bare back. No shirt covered his upper body as he slept, his blanket his only guarantee of warmth. 

A ringing somewhere in the house roused the redhead from his slowly faltering slumber. Eyes blinking in response to the light, Axel smacked his lips a little, wondering what time it was and how much of his Sunday was wasted. However, before he could even glance at the clock, he heard his mother's melodic tones call out from the first floor.

"Axel! Door! Now!"

It seemed like she had opened the door, saw someone who was there for Axel and returned to the kitchen and on the way had decided to yell up the stairs.

"Goddammit," he murmured, running his hand over his face to rub the sleep from his eyes. "OKAY!" he hollered back, getting up and not even bothering to reach for a shirt. Why did he need one anyway? It was probably some random person that was returning something he lost or something. Not that he remembered losing anything important recently, though. What time was it?

Descending the stairs, Axel held on to the railing, palm smoothly trailing down it. Suddenly, he slowed down, a single step taking more than a few seconds. Blinking a few times, he thought he was imagining things, but apparently he wasn't, since the vision didn't seem to go away. Why was Roxas standing in his entry hall?

"Uh...hey...there...," he said, completely uncertain as to what else he could possibly say to the blond that was so innocently standing there. "What're you doing here this early?" It was the blond's turn to give a quizzical look at the redhead, who happened to not be wearing a shirt. Some girls would die for a view like this, especially since the guy's plaid pants seemed to be rather loose. If the fact that he was shirtless didn't make Roxas want to nosebleed, then certainly the barely hanging on pants would've done the job, had the blonde NOT had a good sense of control. Really good, actually.

"...Early? What are you talking about? It's past eleven," he said slowly, raising an eyebrow at the redhead who kept blinking down at him, completely unaware that he was half naked. Roxas just kept staring after that, even Axel remained silent for a little bit. It seemed like he was trying to get his head around what the blond had said.

A grin pulled itself onto the older teen's face, a smirk with an eyebrow raised higher than the other. Roxas cocked his head to the side, wondering what he was smiling about. "Are you checkin' me out? Cus it looks like you are." Nice. Just, nice. Roxas' eyes widened suddenly and Axel could have sworn the blond was going through a list of possible responses to use for the situation. Even a light blush spread across his face as he stuttered a bit to find an answer.

"N-no. What makes you think that?" he finally managed to say, trying to clear his throat. Axel only continued to smirk as he put his hand up on the wall and crossed his legs, using that arm on the wall to support himself. Now he was just showing off. Under the clothes that Axel wears, he looks like a really skinny and pretty flimsy kind of guy. Not true at all, as Roxas is learning much to his embarrassment. Muscles. No wonder he could kick Tidus' ass no matter what. He might even give Seifer a run for his money if he tried.

"What, so you aren't half-way to a nosebleed by now?"

"H-hey! No! Don't think things like that..." How embarrassing for the poor guy. Being hit on by a teenager with a fully developed sex drive. Not that Axel's going to admit that.

Putting his hands to his chest innocently, Axel gave the blond an guiltless look. "But Roxy... there's so much more where this comes from. Doesn't that make you want to have a nosebleed?" He batted his eyes for effect. What effect could be the question here. Honestly, Axel's going over the top far too soon.

Before Roxas could give a flustered response, a female voice rang out from the office on the first floor. "How about you guys stop joking around and give me some quiet so I can work? Go upstairs or something." Good suggestion, just not for the two of them. Axel rolled his eyes, turning around and began to climb the stairs back up.

"Better listen to my dear mother. Besides, guess there's more stuff to talk about in my room then on the stairs..." He disappeared upstairs, leaving Roxas to stare at what he could see of the landing. "Roxas!" Snapping out of his reverie, the blond pounded up the stairs, having shed his outdoor stuff in the hall. As he entered the room, and closed the door of course, Roxas looked around quickly. Still the mess he remembered from a while ago. Honestly, did Axel ever clean the place up? It didn't seem like it since debris still dotted the floor and the closet was still overflowing with clothes. He needed a goddamn cleaning lady just for his room alone.

"So what're you here for?" said the nonchalant voice from a corner. Axel was crouching down beside something. A quiet crack of glass sounded, and the redhead swore, gingerly lifting something off the floor by his feet. Standing over him and looking down, Roxas saw what it was; a broken picture frame. The glass was broken with a few pieces laying on the floor. It was cheap glass since it broke too neatly for delicate, good quality crystal. Roxas leaned over, his left hand on Axel's right shoulder, and pulled out the broken frame and picture from the redhead's grasp. "H-hey, give that back." Axel grabbed it back, jamming it into a drawer, to be inspected later. Roxas gave him a suspicious look.

On that picture was Axel, naturally, and a few of his friends at some sort of club or something like that. Next to Axel was a blond, dirty blond hair, with a style of clothing that seemed to matched the redhead's. What was interesting about that guy was the fact that he had his arm around Axel's neck and he was snickering into the camera. Plus he had a mullet/mohawk type of thing going on for him. Not that it was bad or anything, but it just seemed kind of odd.

"...Who was that?" Roxas asked, pushing clothes off of a chair, onto which he promptly sat down. He sounded curious, and he certainly was. It seemed like that picture and that guy was an important person in this tale. Axel however didn't really answer that just yet. He sat down on his still warm bed and put his feet up on it, Indian style.

"Don't worry about it. Okay?" He just seemed to want to get off the topic. Roxas was about to press further when the redhead clarified, "Look, I just don't want to talk about him right now. Not till I straighten things out with him. Okay?" Roxas pondered it for a moment before nodding in agreement. Though he wasn't happy about letting it drop, he came here to talk about other things. That guy in the picture wasn't one of those things. Axel leaned back on his bad a bit, propped up on his arms. "So what're you here to talk 'bout."

Roxas looked down at the floor for a moment. Axel suddenly leaned forward, resting his hands in his lap and supporting himself on his elbows. "Was it about last night and the whole Sora thing?" He made it sound so simply, nothing major. Roxas only nodded. He didn't add that the whole 'making out' thing had gotten to him too. Now that he was looking at the redhead face to face after that, he didn't know if he'd find his voice any time soon, especially since said redhead was shirtless. "Roxas? You there? Or did you fall down the stairs and land on your head?"

Looking up suddenly, a slightly annoyed spark in his eyes, the spiky haired blond stuck his tongue out at the redhead, who laughed at it. "Oooooh so you want to freeeeench. Well, alrighty, Roxy, whatever you want." He winked devilishly, raising a hand to do the 'come hither' motion with his finger. Roxas winced at that and retracted his tongue back into his mouth, color filling his face again, twice in one day. "Aww...," went Axel, disappointment showing on his face. "And here I was looking forward to it."

Shadows came into the blond's face, making the silly look on the redhead's face disappear. Roxas didn't understand how easy Axel made this all seem, all so nonchalant and playful. His own heart was beating fast and he could barely talk. How'd that guy do it all so well? Trying to get a glance at his face, Axel lowered his head, turning it up to try and see what expression was adorning the blond's facial features. "Roxas?"

"How can...how do you...how... Why are you so... calm? Aren't you even a bit embarrassed by any of this?" His head had gone up a bit, his face still tinged pink. "Aren't you having a hard time talking, even a little?" He seemed desperate for a good answer, an answer that made Axel seem like a normal person. That could never be, though. Axel's not normal and neither is Roxas.

The redhead didn't respond; he merely gazed at the blond with a thoughtful look. "What do you think?" was his answer, one that he said with a slight sigh. Roxas didn't answer to that, mimicking Axel. "Well, what do you think?" the redhead repeated, his gaze unwavering. He lifted his hand up again, this time simply waving him over. "Come here and I'll tell you." Roxas didn't trust this gesture at all. "I'm not going to bite you, idiot." Axel scoffed, shaking his head at the blond.

Standing, Roxas edged towards the bed, sitting down next to the other male. A sparkle entered Axel's eye and even as the blond caught sight of it, he couldn't escape. Axel suddenly lunged at him, pushing him backwards to rest on the bed with his hands held down. A mere three centimeters separated the blond's head and the headboard, and that meant that the spikes were pressed flat. Wide-eyed in shock, Roxas looked up at the oddly tattooed face of his classmate, who was grinning rather sheepishly.

"A-A-Axel..." Struggle as he might, Roxas couldn't free himself. Axel radiated heat, leaving a tingling sensation on the blond's body, everywhere, but especially where flesh met flesh. Axel's face was too close, too appealing to ignore. The heat was going to his head, making him dizzy as butterflies blossomed in his belly. Goosebumps ran up and down his skin as he felt Axel's lips flutter lightly across his neck. "W-what are you d-doing?"

"Trying to not be embarrassed. Is that a good enough answer?" A strange sensation flowed through the blond's body as he felt pressure against his neck that only meant that Axel was sucking gently on his neck. Closing an eye on that side, he gave a quick moan, his pink face turning even darker because of it. "Oh so you like that, huh?" Roxas couldn't see the face in front of him, but he was pretty sure it was smirking at him. The words had been softer than usual, though they were still so crisp because Axel's lips were so close to his ear. Suddenly the redhead started nipping at the skin, so gently, that Roxas didn't think it were even possible.

Biting his lip to keep his moans from being voice, Roxas clenched his hands tightly against the ones that were gripping his pretty damn well. Wasn't Axel's mother just downstairs?! "A-Axel... s-stop...your mom...m-mom is..." He stopped as he saw that Axel had stopped his own actions and was blinking down at him. "S-she's...downstairs.." Face flushed almost completely, ears red too, Roxas must have looked pretty flustered to the redhead.

"Yeaaaaaah but she doesn't hear shit down there. Can't you hear the music from here?" Axel motioned towards the door with his head, where sure enough a murmur of music was coming past the closed door. "She turns it up pretty load and her door's even closed. She won't hear us."

Roxas didn't want that to happen though! This was so ridiculasly sudden that he had no idea how he was supposed to react. He knew what this was leading up to but he didn't know how to say 'no' to it right now. "A-Axel, p-please don't! I..!!!" His words of protest were suddenly stopped as he felt the lips against his own, pressing down. Roxas instinctively put pressure back, which only told Axel things were good to go.

Axel's tongue was suddenly pressing against the smaller teen's lips, and he seemed bewildered for a moment, wondering what he was supposed to do in response to that. Then, he parted his lips and teeth a bit, letting the foreign tongue pass though. It tasted odd, but it didn't taste bad. It was just...different. Axel seemed to explore Roxas' mouth like that for a bit before he heard a strange noise coming from the blond; it was an odd type of gurgling protest. He pulled out instantly as he felt Roxas finally push him off.

"The hell are you thinking?!" Roxas screamed at the redhead, who was forced to sit back on his bed like he had earlier. "I..that...ugggh."

Axel just sort of sneered at him. "And...? Did you like it?" Roxas fell silent as he blushed furiously at the redhead who shook his head at that. "Aah I see. So you did like it." Standing up, Axel took a few quick steps over to the blond and cupped his chin with his hand. "There's so much more I can do for you, Roxy..."

"Don't you mean _to _me?" Roxas was surprised at his own audacity. He never said things like that...at least...like this. Axel only laughed.

"Of course. I meant _to _you." He bent over, their height apparent now as it hadn't been on the bed. He pressed his lips against the blond's once more, trying to get another pass into Roxas' mouth. The blond, again, instantly replied and let him in, this time even going so far as to push back with his own tongue. But then he realized he was slowly losing his self control. That wasn't good at all.

"Mmffm!" Roxas pulled back sharply, so fast that Axel's tongue was still sticking out of his mouth as he gaped down. "S-stop it already!" he said up into the tattooed face. "I... I ... I have to go!" Roxas didn't like handling this, it was hard to deal with, especially since he didn't want to enjoy it! He was supposed to be sad over his fight with Sora! But then, Axel _did _make forget about it for a little while. Maybe it was a nice thing. But Roxas was certainly not going to stay to find out more about it. He pulled himself away from the redhead's grasp and shot out the door, after fumbling with the door. He seemed to do that a lot lately in the redhead's presence.

Axel, in the meanwhile only finally managed to put his tongue back in his own mouth and lower his hand, watching the red-faced blond escape. He smiled at the retreating back as he took a few steps backwards and plopped down on the bed. That was interesting. He'd certainly gone pretty far with a guy he know just a bit. It was kind of sad, especially since all of this seemed familiar.

Roxas had gone to grab his coat, which he didn't even pull on. He slipped into his shoes and ran out the door, ignoring the cold that pricked at his skin and the wind that picked at his hair. In a matter of moments he was already inside his own house. He managed to hang up his coat so fast that even his own mother didn't have time to see him climb the steps like a crazy monkey on a rampage.

This was all going too fast for him. He never wanted to go this far with anyone, no matter who they were. But the part that bothered him, probably far more than it did Axel, was the fact that it felt familiar; like they had done it often before. It wasn't fair that somehow this happened to them. Roxas was kind of normal before. Now he was just strange. It wasn't fair. Even more so because he couldn't help but want more himself. He just... he just couldn't stop the feelings he thought were long overdue.

* * *

**Author's Notes**: So how did y'all like that? ;3 Next chapter's gonna be smokin' 


	15. Love

**Pairings** Axel X Roxas, implied Riku X Sora

**Warnings **Mild language

**Rating** Rated PG-13 for language and ideas.

**Disclaimer** I do not own any of the characters in here. I do not claim I do. I can only claim the original teacher, last names, parents, etc.. though they are not my own. If I did own this, I'd have already released the third game and it'd contain pure fangirl smut. You heard me.

**Summary** It's on to the next life for the KH group. When a new red haired student suddenly moves to this high school, sparks fly between him and Roxas. Will things get better for the pair?

**Chapter Summary: **Roxas feels like he's losing his mind. It's so confusing for him that he has no idea what to do. His last resort? The one person who was making him see into another person's past.

**Author's Notes: **Here you go :3 I'm sorry for the long delay but I have been exhausted almost nonstop. I'm serious. Never get old like me and go to high school. If you do..never take all honors. It kills your brain cells far more than video games do. I've finally finished my freshman year and can go onto Driver's Ed. YAY 8DDDD WATCH OUT BUILDINGS HERE I COME.

I'M SOSOSOSOOSOSOSO SORRY FOR NOT DOING THIS SOONER ;; SO VERY SORRY.

**Music: **Skillet songs as follows (Earth Invasion, Last Night, Savior, Whispers in the Dark, Comatose, Rebirth, Say Good-bye) , Breaking Benjamin as follows (Rain, Polyamorous, Breakdown), MCR as follows (Cancer, Famous Final Words, House of Wolves, Welcome to the Black Parade), KH Mixes (themes, bg music), Final Fantasy themes (Eyes on me, Melodies of Life, etc..), I kissed a Girl by Katy Perry, Afi songs as follow (Miss Murder, Love like Winter, Prelude 12/21), Once upon a December from Anastasia

* * *

Roxas couldn't help but feel confused by all this. He'd never thought anything like this could have possibly happened to him in the amount of time that it did. It was unnerving, different, too different. The blond wasn't familiar with feeling like this, this emotion that was running rampant in his system, circling through him like a raging fire. Somehow, just somehow, it felt even a little bit familiar, and that was probably what was scaring him the most right now. It was strange, knowing that somehow he had felt all this before and that it had been just as confusing at it was now. He only wished he could remember it so that he could figure out how to deal with it.

He couldn't keep moping about it though; it wasn't good for his mother as she kept wondering what was wrong with her precious son. All Roxas did the moment he got home was lock himself in his room and let his own bad feelings thicken the air like smog. He managed to avoid most contact with his friends that afternoon, though it really wasn't that hard of a task to accomplish as it seemed his friends were avoiding him as well. He deserved it, didn't he? He had pretty much crushed Kairi emotionally, Sora wasn't his friend at the moment, Riku was siding with Sora. It seemed like Namine was the neutral party this time around.

Now what did Roxas have left? Nothing but himself, really. He couldn't face Axel just yet, not after that performance both of them pulled. He could feel his face gaining heat just by thinking about staring at the visage of the redhead. However, every time that tattooed face appeared inside the blond's head, his heart began to pound harder, faster. He lay on his bed, absently looking at the ceiling when suddenly Axel was on his mind. His beating heart suddenly picked up the pace and his hands instantly raced to his chest, hoping to still the treacherous sounds that rang in his ears.

Roxas wanted to hate Axel. So very much. But he just couldn't bring himself to do it. He was going into a battlefield unprepared. He needed an ally, and that redhead was the only one willing to bring all he had to the fight. Namine... Namine would never try to fight. She was a peacemaker, and even then she wasn't a great one. She was the one that comforted. She didn't fight another's battles for them.

Soon came the moment that Roxas had to decide whether or not he would be willing to see Axel, look directly into those cold emerald eyes gleaming as though a plant grew among a field of flames. Ah, metaphors.

Six o'clock came at a snail's pace and Roxas, knowing well enough that Namine was going arrive home from her Sunday art classes. One could always rely on Namine being where she needed to be, though sometimes that pattern was broken. Not often though.

It looked like that blond girl was going to be the only one that Roxas could talk to.

Ten past six, the teenager took his phone and sent a text message to Namine.

_Pls get online. Need 2 msg u_

_-Rxs_

It was crude and as bad as any teenager's text message, but it would get the meaning across clear enough.

Sure enough, almost ten minutes later, Namine signed on and her first message was almost instantly after that.

**LightArchipelago: Roxas? What's up? What's wrong?**

**Rockoutloud32: Uh, nothings WRONG, really... but...**

**LightArchipelago: Don't lie to me. I know something's up.**

Namine clearly wasn't happy with him for the incident at the theater, but she wasn't holding it against him. She must have been comforting Kairi before, despite knowing that what Sora and Riku had been doing had been so glaringly obvious. Roxas thought that it was just Kairi being too stubborn to realize what was going on. Maybe out of hope that it wasn't true. Maybe. The blond swallowed hard, knowing that he could trust Namine, but he also knew she'd be truthful, no matter what.

**LightArchipelago: It's about the thing with Sora, isn't it? **

**Rockoutloud32: How did you know?**

**LightArchipelago: How can I not?**

**LightArchipelago: So what's going on with you? What's happening to you and Sora? You're supposed to be best friends.**

**Rockoutloud32: Tell that to Sora. I didn't do the worst possible thing. **

**LightArchipelago: Do you like him?**

**Rockoutloud32: Sora? Well, yeah I do. He's my best friend o.O At least...I hope he is...**

**LightArchipelago: That's not what I meant. I meant Axel. Do you like him? **

**Rockoutloud32: Well that's sudden.**

**LightArchipelago: It's not, and you know it's not. Do you like Axel?**

**Rockoutloud32: Yeah I do. He's not a bad guy. What's not to like?**

**LightArchipelago: Oh god, you're so dense. I mean do you like him like him? **

Roxas's fingers twitched over the keyboard. He gazed at that last sentence, so neatly phrased into exactly that which he did not want to have to deal with. Shaking his head to make his fingers operate again, he began his response to convince Namine otherwise.

**Rockoutloud32: Why would I like him like that?! He's a guy! **

**LightArchipelago: So are Sora and Riku, but it doesn't seem like that's stopped them very much. **

**Rockoutloud32: Why does it matter? They've known each other for years on years. I've known Axel barely, what, a few months max? I don't know him. **

**LightArchipelago: Is that your only reason to not like him like that?**

**Rockoutloud32: Like what?**

**LightArchipelago: Like he's someone special.**

Roxas had to stop again, knowing Namine had a point, but he wanted so dearly to ignore it. It wasn't one that he was comfortable admitting, nor was he willing to do the same thing that seemed to have broken his friendship with Sora. Who knew what it would do to them all if something happened to Axel and Roxas. Biting down on his lip a bit, the blond tried again, searching deeper and deeper for reasons to dislike the red-head.

**Rockoutloud32: Why would I like him like that? I'm not gay. Plus he's so annoying. He bugs me. He's soooo perverted**

**Rockoutloud32: And you can tell he wants to get into peoples' pants.**

**LightArchipelago: Even I know he's not trying to do that. **

**LightArchipelago: And we're all perverted. We're teenagers. It's our nature. **

**LightArchipelago: But you still haven't told me what you feel about him. What does Axel make you think of? What is he to you, Roxas? **

**Rockoutloud32: He's not worth ruining a friendship with you, Kairi, Sora, and Riku.**

**LightArchipelago: Last time I checked, Sora always had a problem when his stupidity got called out. Kairi is fine, though she's upset with her two closest friends right now for lying to her. She doesn't like all this sneaking around, and I agree. Especially what you did with Axel. **

**LightArchipelago: Riku is just Riku. He's just supporting Sora. You know he is. He doesn't hate you. Though, he might just dislike Axel a bit. **

**Rockoutloud32: Who wouldn't? **

**LightArchipelago: That's not the point. Answer my question. **

Biting his lip a bit more, Roxas began to panic a little. Namine was being persistent and he couldn't help his slightly shaking appendages from lightly tapping the keys. Why this moment was affecting him so much, he didn't know, nor did he understand it one bit. He had to change the subject. Now. But he didn't know how; Roxas was just so confused like this that his mind failed to help him out, even a little bit.

**Rockoutloud32: Look, I'm sorry. I've got to go. Mom's calling me. Sorry. **

**LightArchipelago: ...**

**LightArchipelago: Alright. Just think about it, alright? **

**Rockoutloud32: Fine. **

With that, Roxas quickly hid his online status by switching to invisible. He stared back at the screen as he watched himself vanish from his friends' buddy lists. A sigh escaped his lips, his nerves slowly falling back into place. Roxas realized just how badly that entire conversation affected him. He rubbed at his fingers, wiping out the cold sensation that tingled within the flesh. Weak on his feet, he painstakingly made his way onto his bed, collapsing like a limp rag doll.

Groaning into his pillow, the blond managed to avoid digging his fingers into the impenetrable weave of the pillow case by digging them into his own arms as substitutes. He felt the pain race up his limbs, but he ignored it, face buried into the cloth. He lay silent for a moment before his deprivation of air forced him to resurface, gulping at it like a fish on land. He finished his exaggerated air inhalation, curling up into a ball with his hands gripping his knees and body facing the wall.

His mind was racing with his thoughts, challenging his heart for first place. His fingers clung to the material covering his chest, the collar tightening against the back of his neck like a noose.

Roxas was hanging himself from his own rope, lost and never to be found again. Not the way he used to be.

Everything was suddenly changing and it was so terrifying. Never did the blond feel as alone as he did now, huddling on his bed, ready to start crying. When did it happen? When did everything seem to break apart like a sugar cube in tea?

He had meant that he didn't hate Axel, but he was beginning to hate the fact that he couldn't find it in himself to dislike that redhead, that clearly felt something for him. Roxas didn't understand that affection that Axel wanted to give him, no doubt. It scared him; he didn't know what to do with something like that. He couldn't ask anyone else either; they'd know for sure why. What was liking someone really about? He had no idea. No one liked him before. For real, at least.

And now Axel seemed to actually want something a bit more than getting laid. Maybe. It could have just been wishful thinking on Roxas's part. Fingers clenched together tightly, knuckles turning white as the blond's heart continued to pound. At least the shaking had finally ceased it's perpetual irritation. However, Roxas couldn't shake the feeling that he had broken out in a cold sweat as his digits touched his chilly face. What kind of reaction could this possibly have been? To what? What had been said to cause this?

He had to get his mind off of this whole situation; it was making him feel more and more insecure about himself. However, his thoughts strayed into even more dangerous waters; Sora and Riku. His lip almost trembled at the thought of having to deal with those two and somehow win them over. He didn't understand too much about why his best friend had lied to him about his relationship with Riku. What was so bad about it? Did he think Roxas would be jealous? Sora knew that Roxas was straight.

Well, sort of.

Roxas had never liked Riku like that. He had liked him as a good friend. Nothing more. Sometimes he'd been afraid that it might have been something else, but he was relieved now to know it was nothing but his hormones going haywire on him. Sora was angry with him. Why?

Nothing was making any sense anymore.

The door opened with a slight click, resonating through the room like pin dropping onto a silent stage. Turning his body in order to find the one guilty of the noise, Roxas was startled to see the one person he was last willing to see. Almost. He did want to see him, but Axel's presence was a surprise, no matter how he looked at it. His face lit up in that expression of shock, which was muffled by the sight blush that was beginning to patch through on his cheeks. Shifting himself into an upright position, Roxas looked at Axel in stunned silence and it seemed that the redhead was doing the same thing; both seemed so awkward around each other right now.

"Roxas...I'm sorry..," said Axel softly, his tone breaking the paper-thin silence that had been hanging in the air like a mist. Roxas slowly swung his legs to the floor, resting them there as his hands clenched at the end of the mattress, material sifting through his fist. The blond shook his head gently in response.

"Why? For what? What have you done to be sorry about?" he muttered back, looking at the floor beneath them. Axel looked straight at the blond, emerald eyes gazing at the sapphire ones that seemed to be slightly moist, glazed with tears unshed.

"Were you crying?" His voice sounded harsh, despite it's quietness. Axel took no steps forward, nor did he attempt to explain himself. Silence greeted his words and the redhead only tried harder, "Roxas...were you crying?"

Roxas broke their eye contact, peering at his hands. Axel tilted his head to try to peek at the blond's face, which was hidden by shadows.

"Roxas? What's wrong? Why were you crying?" The blond shook his head again, more fiercely than before. His eye sight was blurry now, obscured by the tears that finally fell from his lids. A few drops landed on Roxas's pants, and Axel noticed it. He crouched down before the blond, looking up with a concerned expression painting his face. "Roxas...talk to me...," he pleaded, peeling away the hands that were now covering the younger male's face.

"I'm so confused...," Roxas choked out, swallowing hard. His voice croaked and cracked, showing just how much emotion was raging through his system like a drug. His hands shooed away Axel, pushing him away. The contact of flesh between them was warm, like fire, but Roxas didn't want to feel it and get himself even more befuddled. Axel looked so surprised at the motion that he stood in silence as he watched the other male run out the door.

Roxas simply left Axel in his room, ignoring the consequences that would follow. His mother, walking through the hallway on the first floor watched the teenager run down the stairs and grab his coat before running out. She furrowed her brows, looking back up the steps to see the redhead she had let in looking down in bewilderment.

"Axel? What's going on?" she asked, hand holding onto the railing at the bottom of the stairs. Axel took two steps at a time as he bounded down them. "What happened?" The redheaded teenager shook his head as a sigh escaped his lips.

"If I knew, I would tell you, ma'am. I'll go get him... somehow." He pulled on his jacket, not bothering to zip it up as he escaped the house and fled into the afternoon light of a winter day. Roxas's mother stood in the doorway, arms crossed as the cold breeze ruffled her shirt's collar.

"Take as long as you need," shouted the woman at the receding figures. As soon as they disappeared from view, she reentered her house and closed the door. This wasn't her battle to help out in. As much as she wanted to help her son, there was no one that could help him except himself. He would have to learn that soon or face the heartache that was sure to follow.

Roxas just kept running, ignoring the cold that nipped at his exposed face and hands. His legs screamed at him to stop running or else he'd slip on ice. He ignored it and kept running, hoping Axel wasn't following.

Of course he was following. He had to. It was his fault, it seemed. He wanted to fix his mistake.

The blond ran further, before he had to stop. A car pulled out in front of him, turning onto the main road, snow compressed further down. He looked back and saw Axel there, appearing closer and closer. Roxas bit his half-blue lip and jutted around the corner. He saw the alley where the redhead had confronted him before and ran down it, hiding behind a garage. Roxas pressed his back against it, hoping Axel wouldn't run down the alley to find him.

Axel stopped at the entrance to the alley and panted slightly, white vapor condensing in front of his nose and mouth with every exhale. His green eyes darted around the small road, looking for some evidence. He looked at the pavement itself and saw some light tracks in the tire tracks. Sighing softly, causing more vapor to appear, Axel walked down the alley, slowly. He knew Roxas was down here. He hadn't run ahead past the alley. He couldn't disappear. There was no where else for the blond to go.

Roxas cringed a little as he saw the redhead walk past him slightly. Axel had his head turned into the opposite direction before he turned his head to the other side to find his target, slipping down the garage wall to crouch near the ground with his hands to the sides of his head. The redhead stepped toward him and managed to hear a whimper from the body next to the garage.

"Roxas...," he whispered, crouching right in front of the blond. Roxas applied more pressure to his head, eyes half open as tears kept falling. He couldn't drown out the sound of his own name being called, no matter how soft it was. Hands gripped the blond's own, pulling them away from his head. Roxas looked up at Axel, looking directly at the emerald eyes. Loose strands of red hair seemed to fall over his eyes here and there. Why did the redhead run after him? Roxas wanted quiet sanity, not this chaotic emotion.

Maybe he wished he were heartless.

"Roxas...," Axel repeated, refusing to break the eye contact. Roxas forgot about covering his ears as he felt the warmth that came from the redhead gripping his hands like that. The blond tried to turn away his head, but Axel's hand held it back in place. "What's wrong?"

The blond swallowed hard again, feeling his throat tighten.

"You are," he answered at last in a cloud of vapor. His hands began to shake again. He was cold, but his fingers did not tremble so from such a trifle. The contact between the two males made him feel weak again. He liked the feeling, but he hated it as well. Roxas didn't want to be weak. He couldn't afford to be weak. He was almost alone now, without his closest friends to support him like they had always done.

"I am?!" Axel said in mild surprise as a cocky smile wrapped itself into his lips. "Well that's definitely something I've never heard before. Why?" He cocked his head to the side, still grinning at the blond.

An annoyed frown was etched into Roxas's face. Why wasn't Axel a bit more serious at a time like this? He seemed to just try to make this a joke, like everything else. Axel's hands dropped to rest on the redhead's own knees, though the gaze he gave was still as strong. Roxas finally looked away, free from the grasp.

"I think I like you. I think I like you a lot," he said almost silently, as though he were afraid to say anything louder. Axel's smile changed suddenly, shifting into something far less sly than before; it seemed warmer, like the heat their hands made upon contact. "I keep thinking of you and it's making me go insane..."

"How's that wrong? Oh wait – don't tell me. You've got a problem with the fact that we both happen to have dicks, right?" When he didn't get a reaction from that, Axel just laughed slightly, chuckling at the blond. "Oh you're not serious about that right? Man, and here I thought you were more open than that." Roxas looked in an appalled manner at the redhead, feeling a bit hurt, as though thinking that had been so bad. He was entitled to his own opinions and here Axel shot them down with no remorse. The insult rang through his ears, as his eyes dried, filling with anger.

"Well excuse my closed-minded comments then!" Roxas shot up, standing again. He didn't understand why he reacted this way, but he took the chance to get away from Axel. He began to run, but he was no match for the older teen who possessed far longer legs than his. A strong hand clamped down around his wrist, spinning around. He collided with Axel's chest, and that's all he saw; fabric from the sweater that the older male was wearing. Arms tightened around him and Roxas was helpless; he couldn't escape the hold. His own arms instinctively wrapped around Axel's middle, gripping the material of his coat.

"Stop running from this. You know how I feel," Roxas's eyes widened as he looked up at the pointed face above him, his chin pressing into Axel's ribcage.

"How do you feel?" he whispered out, fingers tightening their hold on Axel's coat. The redhead looked down at him, smile gone, but he did not look angry. He gave no answer for the blond. "Axel...how do you feel?" Roxas asked again, still as quietly as ever.

Suddenly lips were pressing against his and Roxas did not complain one bit. The two pulled apart, both their vapors mixing together as the distance between them remained small.

"I think I love you, Roxas."

Roxas's face filled with color, both from cold and embarrassment. He started breathing hard as his pulse surged into a tempo matching the redheads. The blond released one of his hands to run it over the side of Axel's face, fingers roaming over his tattoos. He felt the heat of the flesh beneath his digits. He felt the beating heart within the older teenager's chest pumping blood just as fast his own did through his system.

"I think I love you, too."

Axel smiled, truly relieved. He closed his eyes for a moment before reopening them again. They said nothing as they both leaned into one another and kissed again, the warmth mixing between them on the winter's afternoon, despite the almost freezing temperature around them.

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Geezus that was bad. I'm sorry guys. It seems I'm losing my edge now. Excuse any and all mistakes as I tried my best to get this out. However, I did half of this late at night, which is NOT the best typing time around. Sorry! While I did promise something hot for this chapter, I guess I lied. But I got it done, finally. Next chapter I'm going to start once I post this up and hopefully will finish by next week. Lots of love! - Gen


	16. On the Wrong Side

**Pairings** Axel X Roxas, implied Riku X Sora

**Warnings **Mild language

**Rating** Rated PG-13 for language and ideas.

**Disclaimer** I do not own any of the characters in here. I do not claim I do. I can only claim the original teacher, last names, parents, etc.. though they are not my own. If I did own this, I'd have already released the third game and it'd contain pure fangirl smut. You heard me.

**Chapter Summary: **Happiness comes and goes. And when it goes, it goes in such a way that leaves burning holes where it once resided. Sometimes you just realize you're more alone than you really thought.

**Author's Notes: **Waaaaaaay more than half a year in waiting, I owe you guys something big and hot and hot and big. So. I'll try my best. Missed you all c:

* * *

The two teenagers slowly pulled themselves apart, feeling the prevailing winter wind chilling their exposed flesh. Their breath formed brief clouds of white, which dissipated as quickly as they had been made. The cold bit at their skin, but neither one made a move to return to the warmth of a home. The entire moment had been overwhelmingly awkward, and it should have! They just started making out in an alley, backed up against a neighbor's garage. If that wouldn't make for some rather horrible block party conversation later in the year, then nothing would.

Roxas cleared his throat, bare hand brushing away hair that fell into his blue eyes. His face was tinted an almost violent shade of pink, from cold and emotion. This wasn't something he'd ever imagined, let alone planned. He'd never expected to be standing in the cold of winter with another guy. Dreams of romance were something that girls his age did, not he himself. Now he felt as though being near Axel was enough to keep him happy. It wasn't like him to have these kinds of feelings for another person, let alone of the same gender. No wonder the poor guy felt like he was about to lose it.

Zipping up his coat for the short walk back home, the blond felt his hand being grasped firmly. It burned with heat at the sudden contact. How could Axel's hands be so warm after being exposed to the weather as long as he had? The pulse that lingered underneath the redhead's flesh was rapid enough for Roxas to take note of it. Both were feeling their hearts beating fast, audible in their ears. A light grin was dancing on Axel's lips as he pulled the blond away from the alley.

"Axel, wait," Roxas said, breaking the silence that had formed between the duo. His thought process stopped and the redhead paused, turning to find out what was wrong. He didn't know what else there was to ask now, here, in the cold. He just wanted to get inside. Instead of words coming from the blond, motions presented themselves. Roxas fumbled at the base of Axel's coat and, in a matter of seconds, managed to zip it up. "Okay, there," he stated, grinning up at the taller teenager. Axel smiled right back and took Roxas' hand into his own again.

They walked slowly back, relishing the sensation of their linked hands. It felt good, really, it did. Roxas didn't know holding someone's hand like this would ever feel anything other than what he thought it would; like holding hands. This felt like there was more meaning in it than any other times.

But all these thoughts simply drove the blond's mind into dangerous places. He didn't understand this new found feeling of his, nor did he know where it could have come from. Roxas was in a bit of denial. The feelings were great, but he couldn't logically have them. He didn't like guys, nor was he very interested in dating anyone. So why was he glad to have that body right beside him?

Glancing up at Axel, Roxas watched the way he blinked, how his hair bounced, and how the vapor formed below his nose. He probably grew a darker shade of pink when those piercing green eyes focused on him. His own eyes widened and he forced himself to stare straight ahead.

"Awkward. I know." Axel's voice cut through the air. Then he chuckled nervously, free hand pushing back portions of displaced hair. He had barely bothered to fix his hair that morning. Roxas didn't complain about their attire and their appearance. It didn't matter.

"It's your fault," countered the blond. He kept a straight face as he said it, making Axel give him a questioning look. Everything was always the redhead's fault now, wasn't it? Everyone said it too. Reno had said it before too, joking, but it had stung then too. Noticing the look on Axel's face, Roxas quickly added, "Oh it's a good, it's good." A quick sigh of relief and the tension seemed to melt away despite the temperature.

Standing in the driveway, Roxas stopped, forcing Axel to as well. The redhead turned and the two of them dropped their hands. The warmth they had shared slowly began to be overtaken by the cold air. Roxas just gazed up at Axel, and vice versa. They didn't utter a word.

"Roxas, get back inside," suddenly called the blond's mother from her front doorway. She watched the two teenagers give her a quick look. Facing away from her, Roxas bit his lip as he looked away from Axel's gaze. The redhead gingerly lifted his hand halfway to the blond's face, but he dropped it as he saw the other's mother in the side of his vision.

Slowly turning back to head home, Roxas waited for the hand to stop him, to say good-bye. But it never came, and the blond just kept walking. He slipped into his house and disappeared up the stairs. Axel stood in his spot in the driveway, staring at the front door. Roxas' mother watched him for a minute before shutting the door to the cold. She wasn't smiling. This was turning into something she didn't understand. Something she couldn't understand.

Roxas stood in the hallway, biting at his lower lip. The door to his first period class was open since the first bell was going to ring soon. He still didn't go in, despite the people casually skirting around him asking him to get his stupid ass to the side. To enter meant to charge into battle; Sora was already inside. Roxas was apprehensive about talking at all to Sora. His only consolation was the fact that Namine was going to be there. She would let the two of them fix it on their own, but the blond doubted that his best friend was going to easily forgive him now.

"Don't worry, Roxas. He'll forgive you," Uttered a rather dreamy voice. Namine came into view, holding her closed sketch pad in her arms. "You know the way Sora is. He'll end up feeling so bad he'll apologize." She entered the classroom, vanishing as she turned towards the back. Roxas swallowed roughly and followed her in.

The morning chatter didn't stop with his entrance, so Roxas let himself relax a little bit. No one really paid him any attention, except for two people; Namine and Axel. The artist simply looked up at him from a sketch she did of a make believe town with a yellow-pink sunset. Axel watched him cross to the back without a word, nor a reassuring grin. Roxas was tempted to stand beside his friend and force him to acknowledge him, but the moment the teacher walked in, the bell rang. There was absolutely nothing that could be done now except to sit and wait.

God that really sucked.

The morning went by in a haze for the teenager. He didn't even notice the people around him. It was as though nothing mattered then. That's how much the friendship with Sora meant to him. It hurt to know that the brunette was angry with him. It stung, like nothing before. The feeling wasn't like the warm burning that the thought of Axel left in him. It was much colder.

That's when he realized just how wrong this was.

Roxas felt determined for the first time that day the moment that his lunch break started. His strides held a purpose and his destination was clear as crystal. He was set on forcing Sora to see exactly what Roxas himself had only just realized.

The only problem was that Axel stopped him halfway between his class and the cafeteria.

"Roxas, don't do it," he commanded, hand clamping down on Roxas' arm. It made the blond stop in his tracks, so firm was that hold. "You don't need him, you don't." His words took on a soothing tone, a smile creeping up his face. The blond's heart beat faster at the moment. He could feel the heat off of the other male, but he also felt the flame of anger igniting within his chest.

What did Axel know about Sora? About Riku? About any of them? He didn't know them. He didn't know what they had all had. Nothing in the world gave him the right to stop him from trying to fix things. Axel was in the wrong here.

"Come on, lets you and I go grab something, alright? Sora isn't worthy of being your friend. Look a-"

"Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Roxas' sudden tone silenced the redhead and shocked him into letting go. Roxas' blue eyes were glossy and filled with emotion. He wasn't smiling, that's for sure. "What do you know? Axel there is nothing you can possibly say about my friends. I don't question you about the friends you had. I don't ask you what the guy in the photo means to you. It burns me up inside, but I don't fucking ask you about it!" He was hissing out his words, his anger at everything else crashing onto Axel's ears.

"Roxas, yo-" He was cut off again by an angry growl.

"You haven't made any friends here. You've been here how long, again? I bet you think people are disposable, don't you? I doubt you feel a thing for me, am I right? I'm just convenient! I'm no cheap fuck, Axel!" He half screamed at the person for whom his heart beat furiously. Axel's face fell, then sharpened into anger.

"Where the fuck do you get off?! What the hell makes you think I chose you because you're convenient? Did you NOT see me turn down that chick? Does anything I say mean a thing to you?" The redhead's tones were dangerously low, and his fists were clenched tight. "You do know me!"

"Oh I don't know about that. I know nothing about you and you don't try to share shit! You barely know me, and yet you have the audacity to judge MY friends. Whatever it is we're doing, it's too fast and too wrong. Nothing good happens this fast. Certainly not to me!" Roxas felt his emotions spilling over, and his frustrations erupted out of no where.

"Roxas.." The looks on Axel's face shifted so fast, one would think it's a hummingbird's wings. The seriousness and anger was missing from his look, only to be replaced with pain. "You think I believe this any more than you do? I don't want to fight it. Why do you?" He gave the blond a searching look before he sighed painfully. His hands were shaking visibly, but Roxas didn't notice it. Axel wished he would. "Fine. Go to hell then, Roxas." With that, the redhead turned and walked away.

Roxas wasn't done with his emotions. Tears were close to spilling from his eyes, but he pressed on down the hall as though the fight never happened. No, he had something else to do and that had gotten in the way. He would pay for it later.

"Sora!" He yelled halfway across the large cafeteria. It got quiet briefly, but then the noise flared again, engulfing any responses that were to be had. The blond approached the table he always had sat at. Always. Everyone there looked at him; Kairi, Riku, Namine, and Sora. Hell even the table near them looked at the angry blond [unfortunately Tidus was at the table with some jocks. Go figure].

"Keep it down Roxas, woudja?" asked a senior sitting next to the younger jock. His hair was spiked abnormally in the front, and the tattoo on his face was visible no matter what he did with his hair. "Hard to hear the game over you." He wasn't trying to be rude, but he was missing the score on his iPhone.

"Trying to discipline, Chicken-wuss?" snickered a voice behind Roxas. Seifer strode up, leaning on the table and smirked at Zell. Hard to believe that these two had once been even school friends.

"Shove it, Seifer," growled Zell, putting his iPhone down. "I don't run with the wild animals."

"No but you do seem to love those hot dogs." Color filled Zell's face, but his look was angry. Roxas was about to scream at them, but he got beaten to the punch.

"Oh my god, will you two fags fucking shut up for once?!" screamed Tidus, hands slamming on the table. Roxas rolled his eyes, letting his anger wash over him again as he turned to Sora.

"Sora, this is ridiculous! This isn't going to keep going on, and you know it! You're already feeling bad, I know you are," Roxas tried to be calm, but his heart was aching all of a sudden and the butterflies swarmed his belly. This was just the confrontation he'd been dreading, but he'd been longing for it for years. It was strange. But then again, what wasn't lately?

Sora seemed to finally acknowledge his best friend, looking up at him angrily from his sandwich. The three others at the table watched for the brunette's reaction. Riku looked ready to intervene.

"Roxas, sure I feel bad. But it sucks more that you lied to me. You were totally free to go to the movies, but you went with that guy. Who you said you hated. So more points under the category of lying. Seriously, you want me to trust you when-"

"You've been lying to me for far longer!" screamed the blond, feeling his emotions running his mouth. If only it ran his legs during the mile runs. Sora's face was frozen in his surprise. He had no response. Roxas continued, not caring what the others heard, "You call me your best friend, but you don't say a word to me about being in love or anything like that. You don't confide in me. You confide in Kairi. And you've been doing some extra confiding with Riku! You want me to trust you? Well how can I trust YOU when all you've done is deceive me. You've lied to Kairi, too. I met you and you became my best friend because of how nice and considering you were. Why have you done this to us?"

"Without me you're nothing, Roxas. I introduced you to MY friends, and you joined MY group. Why does it matter to you? Without me, you're a nobody, Roxas. Don't tell me you haven't even thought about how just being my friend gets you other friends. You're different, and you know it," Sora was suddenly serious, his common bubbliness absolutely vaccant. This was so unlike him. This was so unlike them.

Namine looked up at Roxas, her look confusing him further. Her look was one of guilt. It was as though she knew this already. More so, she knew it applied to her as well. Neither one of them were social butterflies. But neither were they made to be friends for one another. Did they belong with these people? Roxas could feel his bonds slipping away from Sora, Kairi, and Riku. It was as though he wasn't there anymore. Kairi looked away, and so did the silver haired teen. Namine finally looked away, choosing to stay with these friends. They were loyal to her, but she didn't really try to go out of her way. She just flowed with them. It was good for her. Roxas just couldn't believe he hadn't realized all this sooner.

He had been hiding behind Sora's shadow and now that he couldn't anymore, he was just another nobody.

The moment the teen stepped out of the cafeteria into the silent hall, he realized he had just made one mistake after another. He just lost his friends. And he'd sent off his only remaining one in angry words. Sora was gone, Namine was gone, and now, Axel was gone too.

Roxas numbly stumbled into the PE locker rooms, knowing no classes were on that period, and he slumped against the wall in the back, glad that Leon hadn't seen him come in. He felt so much like crying, but nothing would liberate his tears. He didn't want to cry, but he also did. He didn't understand. Nothing made sense to him. What had he done? He ruined any friendship he could have had with Sora. He also basically verbally drop-kicked Axel, who told him he was better off without Sora. So now what? Now he was alone. Truly he was a nobody. Or he was just a big idiot.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Unfortunately, that was much shorter than I wanted it to be. However, as it was in an acceptable condition when I looked at it this morning, I decided to put it up. I promised something nice, but gave you dramu. I fail, I know. Well, happy akuroku day.


End file.
